Gabriel Cousens, M.D.
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 Foods produced by organic farming practices exhibit improved vitamin and mineral nutrition, as well as superior taste, shelf life, phytochemical and antioxidant content, and stronger and more organized SOEFs.
Investigations are showing that wild-crafted foods (foods harvested from wild plants) have the highest nutritional content, with organic foods next, and conventionally grown foods last. The USDA periodically publishes data on the nutritional content of food. Historically, since the 1940s, each publication of this data shows a decline in the average nutritional content of food. |
Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., Lisa Y. Lefferts and Anne Witte Garland
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| A landmark 1980 report published by the USDA rebutted the then-fashionable charge that switching to organic farming methods would lead to mass starvation. Instead, the researchers found that "a large number of farmers who operate small farms could change to organic farming with litde economic impact on the U.S. economy." After looking at some of the benefits of organic farming, the researchers concluded the report by saying, "the team feels strongly that research and education programs should be developed to address the needs and problems of organic farmers. |
Jeremy P. Tarcher
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 International Forum on Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM)
A platform for international exchange and cooperation to further organic farming.
IFOAM Head Office do Okozentrum Imsbach
D-66636 Tholey- Theley, Germany
Tel: 49 6853 919890 Fax: 49 6853 919899 headoffice@ifoam. org www.ifoam.org
National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture, Inc.
Dedicated to educating the public on the importance of a sustainable food and agriculture system that is economically viable, environmentally sound, socially just, and humane.
P.O. |
Dr Bernard Jenson and Mark Anderson
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 ORGANIC FARMING WORKS
Many more methods of cleaning up the environment will be researched and developed as we decide to learn from nature. My organic farming experiences have served to teach me the importance of learning through listening and observing. I have found the art of farming simply to be the art of any partnership—listening, observing, and responding. Listen to inner wisdom, listen to your partner, observe everything. The partnership with nature, if we listen and observe, teaches us the mysteries of creation. How often have we wondered how is it that nature can create a baby? |
Brian O'Leary
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 Charles proposes a mix of scientific solutions (such as ending greenhouse emissions) and intuitive approaches which respect nature rather than overwhelm her—for example, going to organic farming instead of genetically modified foods. These words stand in stark contrast to the silence of royalty steeped in the control of the world's money and resources.
While I happen to be on the side of radical change versus gradual reform, we will need to create more gatherings like those described above to discuss remedies. |
Carl Jensen
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 And, Hisataka Suto, a Japanese organic rice grower and true believer, has created his own home page on the Net to promote organic farming to the world. Suto's home page can be accessed at http://www.aizu.com/lab/vr/Farmer/Suto (The Daily Yomiuri, 6/16/96).
But perhaps the biggest boost for organic farming in the future occurred on June 19, 1996, when the Los Angeles Times reported that an investment group headed by Roy Disney bought a majority interest in organic foods marketer Cascadian Farms. |
David Hoffman, FNIMH, AHG
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 Soil structure and stability are becoming major ecological problems in much of the world, and organic farming represents a step toward remedying this situation.
In addition, a basic principle in ecology is that the more diverse a system is, the more stable it will be in the face of environmental perturbation, and organic techniques increase the diversity of soil populations. Wildcrafting plants, the practice of collecting wild plants from their natural environment, highlights the need to preserve habitats as a source of plant and seed. |
Jeremy P. Tarcher
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| Bee pollination is essential to organic farming, Vinod explains, as Anna dodges the few bees buzzing near us.)
Vinod reminds me very much of a man I'd met years ago in Guatemala. (I was with Anna then, too, but she wasn't quite the partner she is now. She was only three!) At the time, development worker Roland Bunch was teaching indigenous people—pushed by big lowland haciendas onto steep, easily eroded hillsides—how to increase corn yields using erosion-retarding ditches. He did the best he could to help, but eking out much food at all was tough. |
| So are the dangers of pesticides to you—the farmers—what is motivating the MST to try to shift members to organic farming?" I ask.
Jacir jumps in to answer, "It's not just that farming without using pesticides means less hazard and lower costs for us. Why would we go to all this trouble and risk to grow food that's just going to hurt people? We are concerned about the people in the cities, too."
My last image of the encampment is of Franciele and her buddies, healthy looking, with bright eyes and happy faces. |
| So the group paid for me to go to college to learn organic farming. I went for two years." Listening to Karangathe, I weigh the likelihood back home of neighbors teaming up to put a friend through college: slim.
Once Karangathe's training was complete, Wangari offered him a job in the Green Belt Movement, and his Riff Valley community encouraged him to take it. All they asked in return for having supported his education was that, from time to time, he help them with their organic-farming efforts.
"I started with the pilot phase of the Green Belt food security program. |
Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
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 Converting farmlands to organic takes time and money; however, when it is done correctly, organic farming can reduce (or eliminate) water pollution and conserve both water and soil on farms. Since synthetic input (chemicals) is prohibited, rotating crops and building soil must be done naturally, which is more labor-intensive. Organic farmers seek to optimize land, plant, and animal interactions; preserve the soil; and overall, contribute to sustainable agriculture. In general, they use organic manure and mulches to improve soil structure and they employ natural pest controls. |
Jeremy P. Tarcher
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| Promotes small-scale organic farming together with eco-tourism. Jadwiga Lopata, Director 34-146 Stryszow 156 Poland
Global Exchange Reality Tours (Chapter 9)
The tours educate people about how we, individually and collectively, contribute to global problems and suggest ways in which we can contribute to positive change. The tours offer a variety of educational programs that address contemporary political, economic, environmental, and cultural issues around the world. 2017 Mission Street, #303 San Francisco, CA 94110 Tel: (800) 4971994 www.globalexchange. org/tours realitytours@globalexchange. |
Brian O'Leary
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| Develop new agricultural options such as hemp, straw, azomite, organic farming and permaculture as substitutes.
4. Re-examine the role and use of water for health.
5. Convert the materials economy to a 100% recycled one.
Meeting these challenges may seem to be socially insurmountable, but they must be met; the logic is so clear. Oddly enough, it is the fifth area, recycling our resources, that might meet with the greatest resistance from most people in terms of changing our lifestyles—especially in America. |
Peter Pringle
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 The Soil Association told journalists that "there could be no future for organic farming unless genetically engineered crop testing is brought under control and commercial planting prevented."21 Instead of halting the field tests, the government sent a committee of experts down to Devon to investigate.
At issue was whether the two fields—Watson's corn and the government's GM test crop—were sufficiently far apart to prevent the GM maize pollen from being carried on the wind or transported by insects to Watson's crop. |
| Melchett suggested that if Monsanto would renounce all biotech products and embrace organic farming, then Greenpeace would become the company's partner in finding a solution to the world food problem. "It was a bit like offering moral support to General Motors, if only the automobile maker would abandon the internal combustion engine in favor of the bicycle," observed Michael Specter in the New Yorker.^1
Anatomy of a Poisoned Butterfly
It's not an exaggeration to say more monarchs succumb to high-velocity collisions with car windshields than ever encounter corn pollen. |
Walter Last
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 Improved agricultural conditions must be maintained by returning to the soil whatever has been taken out, using composting and organic farming methods.
Heavy use of water-soluble fertilizers allows cropping in poor soils, but plants become deficient and offer little resistance to disease and insect attacks. This then justifies the liberal use of highly toxic agricultural chemicals, part of which remain in the plants and fruits and are eventually ingested by us. The most commonly affected are commercially produced fruits. |
Dr Bernard Jenson and Mark Anderson
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| In the years that followed my conversion from a sickly junk-food addict to healthy proponent of natural foods and organic farming, I became excited by the prospect of starting a sanitarium on a ranch where I could grow much of the food my patients would eat. By combining what I had learned from Rocine and Albrecht with Robert Rodale, publisher of
Organic Gardening magazine and owner of the Rodale Publishing empire, I was ready to give organic farming a try. The results? Great success. |
Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.
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 If you are concerned about the environment, then yes, buy organic, since organic farming is much gentler on the land. organic farming is much less harmful to the environment than conventional farming, reducing both the pesticide residues in food and the land, as well as reducing the contamination of our water supplies. Conventional farming pollutes water with pesticide runoff, degrades topsoil, and uses nonrenewable energy resources. |
Elizabeth Somer, M.A., R.D.
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 On the other hand, organic farming is much less harmful to the environment than conventional farming methods, reducing both the pesticide residues in food and the land, as well as reducing the contamination of our water supplies. Conventional farming pollutes water with pesticide runoff, degrades topsoil, and uses nonrenewable energy resources. In contrast, organic farming releases few chemicals into the environment, enhances soil quality, and encourages biodiversity of crops, thus protecting our natural resources. |
Jeremy P. Tarcher
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| At one gathering to which Karangathe invited villagers to learn about organic farming, a local government farm agent called the police. "Pointing at me, the farm agent said, 'There's a thug here. He's invading my jurisdiction with unproven technologies. Arrest him.'
"They wanted to disperse the meeting, but I protested, 'I don't think this is an illegal meeting,' I said to the chief. I told the government agent that what is lacking is communication, dialogue between the conventionally trained and the organic. 'We don't have to fight. Let's join hands. |
Gabriel Cousens, M.D.
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 Going organic not only protects us and our prospective children from the deleterious effects of pesticides and herbicides on the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems of babies, but it supports organic farming. organic farming is important because it builds the soil rather than depletes it. Eating organic food from organic healthy soils builds organic healthy children. Organic food is a must for maintaining health and for optimal pre-fertilization and prenatal nutrition.
Many indigenous cultures were and are aware of the importance of pre-fertilization and prenatal nutrition. |
John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton
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 Currently, "certified organic" farmers are prohibited from using sludge on their crops, but the sludge industry is pushing for acceptance by organic farming organizations, and this will be a battleground for industry PR in the future. The amount of farm acreage dedicated to organic farming is currently very small. However, said Brian Baker of California Certified Organic Farmers, "imagine what great PR it would be for the sewage sludge promoters to say that sludge is so clean it can even be certified organic—what a way to 'greenwash' sewage sludge! |
Josef A. Brinckmann and Michael P. Lindenmaier
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 Contamination with pesticides
Pesticides are commonly used in both commercial food crop and medicinal plant cultivation. organic farming, while usually limited to smaller farms due to the higher costs involved, is increasingly practiced on a larger scale. While the use of pesticides for food crops is regulated in many industrialized countries, such legislation is lacking or largely ignored in many developing nations. It is therefore possible that pesticides, which have long been banned in the Western world (such as DDT), are still present in herbal drugs imported from those parts of the world. |
Dr. Michael Heinrich, Joanne Barnes, Simon Gibbons and Elizabeth M. Williamson
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 Plant materials are grown according to the principles of bio-dynamic farming, which is similar to organic farming. Pharmaceutical manufacturing companies exist that are dedicated to the production of anthroposophical medicines.
AROMATHERAPY
History
Aromatic plants and their extracts have been used in cosmetics and perfumes and for religious purposes for thousands of years, although the link with the therapeutic use of essential oils is weak. |
Marion Nestle
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 Because practices related to organic farming were inconsistent, organic farmers attempted to set up a voluntary certification program but could not reach consensus on how to do that. They asked Congress to establish mandatory rules for designating food as organic, and legislators did so in 1990 when they passed the Organic Food Production Act and established a National Organic Standards Board to advise the USDA about implementation. |
Doris J. Rapp, M.D.
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 In general, they had a six times greater risk than non-farmers in developing cancer. organic farming eliminated that risk.203
• Diazanon is another common organophosphate insecticide that is reported to be related to non-Hodgkin's lymphomas in farmers, as well as damage to the nervous system and increased brain cancer in children. It is used in homes, on lawns and in gardens. Its use was restricted in December 2000.116
• Studies of farmers in the United States and elsewhere indicate they suffer from more depression or suicide than expected. |
Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., Lisa Y. Lefferts and Anne Witte Garland
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| Instead, the researchers found that "a large number of farmers who operate small farms could change to organic farming with litde economic impact on the U.S. economy." After looking at some of the benefits of organic farming, the researchers concluded the report by saying, "the team feels strongly that research and education programs should be developed to address the needs and problems of organic farmers. |
Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
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| The public demand for organic foods is growing, even though some traditional farms are becoming even more reliant on pesticides, fertilizers, and hormones to increase crop yields. organic farming is still a relatively small industry (about 10 percent of agriculture in the United States), but it is experiencing growth worldwide. A number of European nations expect 30 to 50 percent of their farms to go organic in the near future. The organic movement also includes meat, dairy, and egg sources. |
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