Health Benefits of Eating Organic Food, and Organic Skincare

The rise of organic products, from food to organic skincare, is becoming a noticeable trend in the past five years or so. The reason behind it all is that many people feel that there are health benefits from eating organic food. If you ask anyone who shops regularly in Whole Foods, they’d rather lick the floor than to eat non organic food or use products that don’t have the USDA stamp of approval on them. Some call this being frantic and picky, but people in the medical and scientific fields are now admitting that there’s more to it than simply being overcautious.

There is a strong suspicion that chemicals are responsible for making our bodies toxic and are responsible for the current overflow of cancer. Toxins are believed to cause damage to key enzymes, which would lead to multiple health problems. It is also being studied and verified that synthetic chemicals cause disruption of hormone production and function. These findings are responsible for the growing number of people who search for purity when looking for something to put in their stomachs and on their skin. In June 2009 the European Commission’s Communication on Cancer revealed that they have acknowledged that there are too many environmental factors such as food chemicals and chemicals in air and water that need to be addressed in order to prevent cancer.

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Benefits of Consuming Organic Food

Simply put, the term ‘organic food’ means that a food has been produced without harmful chemicals such as herbicides (weed killers), fungicides (mold killers), and insecticides (insect killers) which are potentially cancer causing and it also prohibits the use of antibiotics in animal feed, which are routinely used in conventional farming. Organic farming also benefits the farm workers who have high exposure to chemicals and synthetic pesticides. The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported millions of serious unintentional poisonings and people hospitalized for suicide attempts with pesticides each year. It is estimated that there could be as many as 25 million agricultural workers in the developing world suffering an episode of poisoning each year.

Organic production yields are often lower because the farms do not involve the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides and other technological aids. Also, labor intensity is greater and many organic farms are smaller than conventional farms, thus missing economies of scale. However, in the last decade, responding to the growing demand, mainstream grocers are stocking more organic produce, milk, baby food, and meats, while healthy-food chains have opened dozens of stores. Many people are prepared to accept the extra cost and pay the extra money largely on the grounds that they believe organic foods are more nutritious and safer than foods produced by conventional methods, and are be less harmful to the environment and to food producers. Generally, it is believed that organic production reduces health risks and especially for pregnant women and children, the benefits of organic are worth the higher price. Going organic whenever possible for fruits and vegetables that carry the heaviest pesticide load makes sense for these vulnerable groups of consumers. Some suspect that high doses of pesticides can cause neurological or reproductive damage. With infant reproductive organs still forming and the brain developing and with young immune systems less able to rid bodies of contaminants, eating organic is more important for children and pregnant or breast-feeding women. Furthermore, levels of antioxidants potentially important substances in human nutrition – in addition to vitamins and minerals have generally been reported to be higher in organic foods. This may be because these natural chemicals are produced to protect the plant against insect pests, and organic crops have less pesticide protection. Another theory is that the faster growth in artificially fertilized crops causes the plant to concentrate resources for growth rather than production of these antioxidants. An additional argument used in support of organic food is that it ‘tastes better’. A report by the highly respected Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) concludes that organically grown (golden delicious) apples were found to be firmer and received higher taste scores than conventionally grown apples. Another study showed that organic tomatoes were sweeter and organic carrots had more “carrot taste”.

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The myth of organic rice

The idea of organic farming is to conduct well with environmental protection, respect natural ecology, and conserve energy rather than merely staying with the notion of myth of “free from residual agricultural fertilizer.” The farming of organic rice refers to the process of farming on unpolluted land, using pure water sources, and the farming process is done according to the criteria of organic agricultural production, absolute free from using agricultural pesticide, chemical fertilizer, and production adjuster for cultivation and harvest. Furthermore, it would also work according to the processing procedures of dehydration, storage, and grinding of CAS quality rice. And the processing procedures for grinding, storage, and package of organic rice have to be separated from the production line of regular rice in order to comply with the definition of organic rice. In addition, based on the even more stricter sense of certification overseas, the farm of organic rice must be free from the use of any chemicals for at least three years (for instances, agricultural chemical, herbicide, bactericide, and antibiotic), while strict rotation farming is enforced. Therefore, the notion of organic rice is not merely free from residual agricultural chemical, but rather to embrace the entire agricultural production procedures within. Starting from seeding, it would have to be organic, then from cultivation, planting, production, storage, processing, transportation to cooking, and there cannot be a least of contamination. For the time being, the organic agriculture of Taiwan can, basically, be considered as within the scope of pre-organic – using less agricultural chemical. As a matter of a fact, for organic certification of the world there is not so-called pre-organic product – using less agricultural chemical.

When cultivate organic rice, the organic fertilizer has to be used to provide the needed nutrient for the crop, while field rotation crop and manual management are employed to control grass of the field. Also, tiny-net for incoming water is used in order to avoid grass seeds from coming. For the field pest control, herbal mixture of tea or manpower is used to prevent ampullarium insularum, and bacillus thuringiensis against pest and inset. Since Taiwan is located in sub-tropic area, it is mostly with high temperature and humidity and is quite difficult to control pest. Furthermore, as its land of farming is tiny and small, the size is not up to economic scale for farming; under small and intensive farming, the cultivation of organic rice is, indeed, a tough industry. With the aging of farming population, the industry, which needs massive manpower and time to tend to, is encountered with inevitable difficulty for its a prior cultivation and posthumous implementation. Also, harvest of organic farming would usually reap 60% of regular farming, rendering difficulty to the plantation of organic rice in realistic and economic terms. Not to mention there would be media reports from time to time about “organic rice being polluted by neighboring field,” or the ambiguous statement of so-called “plant nutriment mixed chemical fertilizer.” Of the these practical problems, it is difficult for farmer of organic rice to elaborate, and if relevant government authorities would not help to investigate it would only leave the general consumers to linger in loss in the myth of what exactly is organic rice.

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