WHY  CHOOSE  ORGANIC ?

To Protect Future Generations:
The average child receives four times more exposure than an adult to at least eight widely used cancer-causing pesticides in food.  The food choice you make now will impact your child's health in the future.

To Prevent Soil Erosion:
The Soil Conservation Service estimates that more than three billion tons of topsoil is eroded from the United States croplands each year.

To Protect Water Quality:
Water makes up two-thirds of our body mass and covers three-fourths of the planet.  Despite its importantance, the Enviromental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates pesticides and some cancer-causing contaminates in groundwater in 38 states are polluting the primary sources of drinking water for more than half the country's population.

To Save Energy:
Modern farming used more petroleum than any other single industry, consuming 12% fo the country's total energy supply. More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate and harvest all the crops in the United States.  Organic farming is still mainly based on labor-intensive practices, such as weeding by hand and using green manures and cover crops rather than synthetic fertilizers to build up the soil.  Organic produce also tends to travel fewer miles from field to table.

To Keep Chemicals Off Your Plate:
Many pesticides approved for use by the EPA were registered before extensive research linking these chemicals to cancer and other diseases had been established.  Now the EPA considers 60% of all herbicides, 90% of all fungicides and 30% of all insecticides carceinogenic.

To Protect Farm Worker Health:
A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had a six time greater risk than non-farmers or contracting cancer.

To Help Small Farmers:
Although more and more large-scale farms are making the conversion to organic pesticides, most organic farms are small, independently owned and operated family farms of less than 100 acres.

To Support A True Economy:
Although organic foods might seem more expensive than 'conventional' foods, conventional food prices do not reflect hidden costs borne by taxpayers, including nearly $74 BILLION in federal subsidies since 1988.  Other hidden costs include pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and cleanup, and environmental damage.

To Promote Biodiversity:
Mono-croping is the practice of planting large plots of land with the same crop year after year (remember cotton).  While this approach tripled farm production between 1950 and 1970, the lack of natural diversity of plant life has left the soil lacking in natural minerals and nutrients (dust bowl memories).  To replace the nutrients, chemical fertilizers are used, often is increasing amounts.  Single crops are also much more susceptible to pests, making famers more reliant on pesticides.  Despite a tenfold increase in the use of pesticides between 1947 and 1974, crop losses due to insects have doubled - partly because some insects have become genetically resistant to certain pesticides.

Here at The CURIOSITY Shop we now carry Certified Organic Produce that comes from small organic farms around the SouthEast.  All the produce that we import (i.e., bananas) is from organic fair trade farms.  While the cost is a little more than 'conventional large farmed produce' it is made up in the quality and taste!  Our shipments are received weekly.

My first venture into organic farming was in 1978 when my brother and I set up a raised bed garden in Aiken Estates.  That's been awhile, but I still have several raised beds in my backyard today.

Peas Not War