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THE TOP TEN REASONS TO BUY ORGANIC FOODS

THE TOP TEN REASONS TO BUY ORGANIC FOODS
Pesticide kills insects — contrary to Jiv Daya

  1. Protect Future Generations. The average child receives four times more exposure than an adult to eight most widely used cancer-causing pesticides in food.

  2. Prevent Soil Erosion. Soil is eroding seven times faster than it is being built up naturally on U.S. croplands, in modern chemically fertilized farms.

  3. Protect Water Quality. The EPA estimates pesticides contaminate the groundwater in 38 states, polluting the primary source of drinking water for more than half the population.

  4. Save Energy. Modern farming uses more petroleum than any other single industry, and more energy is used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to cultivate and harvest crops. Organic farming relies on more labor-intensive practices and using green manures and crop covers to build up soil.

  5. Keep Chemicals off Your Plate. Many pesticides were approved before research linked them to cancer and other diseases. A 1987 National Academy of Sciences report estimates that pesticides might cause an extra 1.4 million cancer cases among Americans.

  6. Protect Farm Workers. A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had a six times greater risk of contacting cancer.

  7. Help Small Farmers. Most organic farms are small, independently owned family farms of less than 100 acres. At the rate family farms are being lost, organic farms could be one of the few survival tactics left.

  8. Support a True Economy. Conventional food prices do not reflect hidden costs born by taxpayers, such as $74 billion in federal subsidies in 1988. Other hidden costs include regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and cleanup, and environmental damage.

  9. Promote Biodiversity. Mono-cropping reduces diversity of plant life and strips the soil of minerals and nutrients, ever-increasing the need for chemical fertilizers.

  10. Taste Better Flavor. More and more chefs are using organic foods in their recipes, because organics taste better!

People’s Cooperative — Ocean Beach, California

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