Why is Organic Produce Important?

QUESTION: I cant afford organic produce, can you please explain to me why organic is so important.

This is a question we are often asked. I have taken Victoria’s answer from a teleconference. You can also read about the importance of microorganisms in the soil in Green for Life. The chapter is titled ‘Healthy Soil is more Valuable than Gold’ and Victoria discuses that ‘when all microorganisms get destroyed with chemicals, the soil turns to dust’. Here she explains that  ’through the plants we eat, we receive essential nutrients that were created by microorganisms in the soil’

VICTORIA: I personally think that we absolutely have to strive for organic. Some will say it’s expensive and someone asked about pesticides. The problem is not that non-organic has pesticides, but rather that it doesn’t have any nutrition. My main message is that we are malnourished and have deficiencies. Commercial produce doesn’t have any nutrition.

I’ll give you an example from a table I published in Green for LIfe. This table was taken from a book by Dr Gary Far, Comparing Organic Versus Commercially Grown Foods…
Let us look at Organic Lettuce. It says that organic lettuce has 12mg of sodium and commercial lettuce has 0mg. Organic has 176.5mg of potassium, commercial only 53mg. Organic has 169mcg of manganese which is an important nutrient, while commercial has only 1mcg.

Let’s look at organic spinach which has 1584mg of iron, commercial has only 89mg.  Organic tomatoes have 1938mg of iron while commercial has only 1mg. That’s 2000 times more.
What we want is nutrition. We don’t want to eat placebos that will just fill space in our bodies and make us sick. We want health. Organic is not 2000 times more expensive than non-organic. Do whatever you can to find organic. It took me years to understand the importance of organic foods and now I eat only organic. I will cut back on buying extra shoes because I want to eat organic. I don’t want to get sick. I can’t imagine going to a doctor and having them cure me right away.

Also, when you eat organic, the industry will produce more organics. It’s already happening. According to 2006 statistical data, every American household has at least one organic product. There are more organic products in stores such as Costco, and Costco is everywhere. In Ashland, we have had three restaurants close due to lack of customers, one of them being the first McDonalds in the United States to close due to lack of customers. The second was Dairy Queen and the third was Pizza Hut. In place of them we have a juice restaurant and two banks. You can help create a demand that will be satisfied. It’s up to you. I hope you can eat more organic foods.

Photo taken from Free Digital Photos