why organic – Blog Greenearthorganics

We all get sick sometimes, but when something serious comes along how we define what is important to us can change significantly. There is little doubt that without our health we have very little. All it takes is to be laid up in bed with a serious dose of the flu to know that being sick can be serious. The prevalence of chronic disease in our current age is frightening, it is unfortunately a reflection on how we as a society have evolved. Our eating habits, working habits, exercising habits, have steadily changed and not for the better over the last 50 years.

But what has happened to our food is very concerning. Obviously, the ultra-processed
rubbish that is designed to be irresistible is very unhealthy, and we would in all seriousness
be better off eating cardboard. But it is often said that it is not what we do occasionally that
is the problem it is what we do every day that causes the benefit or the damage. Those
things we eat everyday are one of the keys to our health.
Our bodies are amazing machines and when we are young, we can cope at least for a
while with just about anything, but as we grow older things start to take a greater tole on our
health. So it is with our food, at least in my opinion the chemicals on conventional food must
over time do damage, they hurt us on the inside and they do it gradually over years. I
remember years ago my biology teacher telling me if you irritate something for long enough
you will cause cancer.
I know I am fortunate and can afford to consume organic food as I have it all around me, I
don’t take that for granted. Ironically, for health reasons I have a restricted diet and one of
the things I can eat are blueberries. Over the last couple of weeks, we haven’t been able to
source organic blueberries as we do not buy airfreighted produce. So, I bought some
conventional blueberries in a shop. I think they tasted a little odd, I ate them anyway. But I
decided to investigate this a little and here is what I found:
In 2024 Pesticides were found on 90 percent of conventional blueberry samples, compared
to 81 percent in 2014. 80 percent of samples had two or more pesticides, versus 70
percent in 2014. A single sample of blueberries could have up to 17 different pesticide
residues, compared to 13 in 2014. Reference here.

This information is relevant to the US, but many of the blueberries on Irish supermarket
shelves come from all over the world and could have the same residues. The most
troubling pesticides found on blueberries were phosmet and malathion, chemicals known as
organophosphate insecticides. They kill many types of insects and are toxic to the human
nervous system.

Not only are conventional blueberries on the list of items to source organically if you can,
but green beans, peppers, and kale were also singled out. We have sourced organic
blueberries again, the first new European harvest from Spain. I write this piece to once
again highlight the difference between conventional food production and organic. Don’t we
deserve to known about these unseen extras?
So anyway, I am looking forward to getting the first new season organic non airfreighted
blueberries next week. They won’t be as good as the Irish ones we had a few weeks ago,
but they will be pretty good.

As always thank you for your support

Kenneth

870 possible chemicals. This is the number of potential, pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and bactericides a recent sample of our kale was tested for.

We had our organic inspection a few weeks back and this is a routine test that is carried out on a random crop grown on our farm by our organic certifying body every year. The kale came back perfect, no chemicals present as expected. But I can only surmise that they test for 870 different types of chemical products because these are the chemicals that could be used at varying points in the conventional food system.

Many moons ago I use to listen to a song by a band called “Alice in Chains” called “Junkhead”, (not a song for the faint hearted!). It popped into my head again when we got these test results back, there are some striking similarities between the song’s lyrics “What’s your drug of choice?” when it comes to the repertoire of chemicals a conventional producer can choose from: “what’s your chemical of choice?”. There is a chemical for every problem and even for problems that have not yet occurred.

Here in Ireland, there is relatively high accountability for our conventional food producers. There has over the last 10 years been some good news as the overall pesticide usage has declined by 16% which is heading in the right direction. But a word of caution here this still equates to over 3 million kg of chemicals applied to our food and land.

But with much of our food in this country being imported and as we don’t have the same visibility on what controls are implements in foreign parts, (over 85% of all fruit and vegetables are imported) then choosing organic becomes even more important.

Organic systems are not perfect, but they do offer an alternative, one that keeps chemicals off our food, and in doing so also helps protect biodiversity. It does sometimes feel ironic that it is the organic producer that must prove their credentials, go through the extra paperwork, and submit samples to prove that we are not doing anything underhand.

The authorities set limits on the levels of chemicals allowed on our food, they are supposedly designed to help protect you and I as consumers. These limits are referred to as MRLs or maximum residue limits. But as I have talked about before and particularly in relation to Glyphosate; sometimes these limits can vary erratically from one crop to another or from country to country. The MRL for glyphosate increased 300-fold between 1993 and 2015 in the US (Is it safer to consume more of this chemical today than it was 20 years ago? I don’t think so!) to allow it would seem for the increased application of this herbicide on GMO soya and corn. This not strike me as having the best interests of the consumer at heart.

Chemicals are critical to our very survival on this planet, and when I talk about “chemicals” here I mean synthetic or man-made chemicals. They help us treat disease; they make possible all the amazing technologies we rely on for our modern-day way of life. But, and this is a big one, I do not believe they belong in or on our food.

Maybe “our drug of choice” should be fresh healthy clean food!

You are the lifeblood of our organic farm and business.

Thank you.

Kenneth

PS last week we opened our Christmas shop, we will be delivering as normal in the week before Christmas and now you can book your delivery and place your order for delivery for Christmas week. Check it out now here.