Showing posts with label cheap organic meals on a budget. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cheap organic meals on a budget. Show all posts

Friday, October 2, 2015

Top 10 Reasons To Grow Your Own Organic Food

1. GET THE NUTRITION YOU NEED & ENJOY TASTIER FOOD!

Many studies have shown that organically grown food has more minerals and nutrients that we need than food grown with synthetic pesticides. There’s a good reason why many chefs use organic foods in their recipes—they taste better. Organic farming starts with the nourishment of the soil, which eventually leads to the nourishment of the plant and, ultimately our bodies.

2. SAVE MONEY

Growing your own food can help cut the cost of the grocery bill. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars and month at the grocery store on foods that don’t really nourish you, spend time in the garden, outside, exercising, learning to grow your own food.






3. 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. Food choices you make now will impact your child’s future health.

                          “We have not inherited the Earth from our fathers,
                                  we are borrowing it from our children.”
                                                 – Lester Brown



4. PREVENT SOIL EROSION

The Soil Conservation Service estimates more than 3 billion tons of topsoil are eroded from the United States’ croplands each year. That means soil erodes seven times faster than it’s built up naturally. Soil is the foundation of the food chain in organic farming. However, in conventional farming, the soil is used more as a medium for holding plants in a vertical position so they can be chemically fertilized. As a result, American farms are suffering from the worst soil erosion in history.

5. PROTECT WATER QUALITY

Water makes up two-thirds of our body mass and covers three-fourths of the planet. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates pesticides - some cancer causing - contaminate the groundwater in 38 states, polluting the primary source of drinking water for more than half the country’s population.

6. SAVE ENERGY

American farms have changed drastically in the last three generations, from family-based small businesses dependent on human energy to large-scale factory farms. Modern farming uses more petroleum than any other single industry, consuming 12 percent of the country’s totally energy supply. More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate and harvest all the crops in the United States. If you are growing your own food in the city, you are cutting down on transportation and pollution costs.

7. KEEP CHEMICALS OFF YOUR PLATE

Many pesticides approved for use by the EPA were registered long before extensive research linking these chemicals to cancer and other diseases had been established. Now the EPA considers 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides and 30 percent of all insecticides carcinogenic. A 1987 National Academy of Sciences report estimated that pesticides might cause an extra 4 million cancer cases among Americans. If you are growing your own food, you have control over what does, or doesn’t, go into it. The bottom line is that pesticides are poisons designed to kill living organisms and can also harm humans. In addition to cancer, pesticides are implicated in birth defects, nerve damage and genetic mutations.

8. PROTECT FARM WORKERS & HELP SMALL FARMERS

A National Cancer Institute study found that farmers exposed to herbicides had six times more risk than non-farmers of contracting cancer. In California, reported pesticide poisonings among farm workers have risen an average of 14 percent a year since 1973 and doubled between 1975 and 1985. Field workers suffer the highest rates of occupational illness in the state. Farm worker health is also a serious problem in developing nations, where pesticide use can be poorly regulated. An estimated 1 million people are poisoned annually by pesticides.

Although more and more large-scale farms are making the conversion to organic practices, most organic farms are small, independently owned family farms of fewer than 100 acres. It’s estimated the United States has lost more than 650,000 family farms in the past decade. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted that half of this country’s farm production will come from 1 percent of farms by the year 2000, organic farming could be one of the few survival tactics left for family farms.

9. PROMOTE BIODIVERSITY

Mono-cropping is the practice of planting large plots of land with the same crop year after year. 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. To replace the nutrients, chemical fertilizers are used, often in increasing amounts. Single crops are also much more susceptible to pests, making farmers 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.

10. HELP BEAUTIFY YOUR COMMUNITY

Besides being used to grow food, community gardens are also a great way to beautify a community, and to bring pride in ownership.


source by : http://foodmatters.tv/articles-1/top-10-reasons-to-grow-your-own-organic-food

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Advantages of Organic Farming

The word organic simply means that nothing unnatural, toxic, or harmful are used in any step of the production process. Organic produce is different from normal produce in a wide variety of ways, but not all of these differences are very significant at all. In order to better understand just how beneficial organic farming is we have to look at both sides of the fence. 


1. No Poison Is Always Great

Organic farming does not use any type of harmful chemicals to keep pests away, unlike the majority of industrial farming. They use all natural methods that do not harm the consumer or the environment that they are grown in. Herbicides, pesticides, and artificial growth hormones are all forbidden on an organic farm.



2. Closely Regulated

In order for a food to be labeled as organic, the entire process of which is was created is thoroughly investigated. The organic food industry is internationally regulated, which means that organic means the same standards where followed, no matter where in the world it was made. This helps the consumers to know that they are truly getting what they think that they are.

3. Better Taste and More Nutrition

Fruits and vegetables that are organically raised have a much better taste than other mechanically farmed ones. This is due to the fact that they are given a much longer time to develop and are not pumped with artificial things. The sugar structures in these crops have more time to mature and develop into a tasty and nutritious product.

4. Costs Are Lowered

There is a deep stigma around anything organic that it had to have cost an arm and a leg to cultivate. This is actually the opposite of the truth. When you cut out the time that is spent to farm organic crops, the actual costs are minimal. These farmers do not have to shell out large amounts of money for expensive chemicals and massive amounts of water, unlike industrial farmers.

5. The Environment Doesn’t Suffer

Another thing that benefits from the use of organic farming is the environment! In industrial farms, the chemicals that are used are seep into the ground and contaminate the soil and local water sources. Humans, animals, and plant life are all affected negatively by this. With organic farming, there are no chemicals used, so no pollution occurs either. 

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Keeping The Cost of Organic Food within Your Budget

Organic food is often more expensive than conventionally grown food. But if you set some priorities, it may be possible to purchase organic food and stay within your food budget. Purchase the organic versions of the foods you eat the most and those that are highest in pesticides if conventionally grown.

Venture beyond the grocery store. Consider the following ideas for finding organic food:

Shop at farmers' markets. Many cities, as well as small towns, host a weekly farmers' market, where local farmers bring their wares to an open-air street market and sell fresh produce direct to you. Often you will find items for less than you'd pay in the grocery store or supermarket.

Join a food co-op. Find out whether there is a natural foods co-op, also called a cooperative grocery store, in your area. Co-ops typically offer lower prices to members, who pay an annual fee to belong. However, you do not need to be a member to shop at a food co-op.

Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, in which individuals and families join up to purchase "shares" of produce in bulk, directly from a local farm. Local and organic!

Organic food buying tips

Buy in season – Fruits and vegetables are cheapest and freshest when they are in season. You can also find out when produce is delivered to your market. That way you know you're buying the freshest food possible.

Shop around – Compare the price of organic items at the grocery store, the farmers’ market and any other venue (even the freezer aisle).

Remember that organic doesn’t always equal healthy – Junk food can just as easily be made using organic ingredients. Making junk food sound healthy is a common marketing ploy in the food industry but organic baked goods, desserts, and snacks are usually still very high in sugar, salt, fat, or calories. It pays to read food labels carefully.