Agricultural chemicals - petroleum based fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides - are a World War II legacy developed to help reduce farm labor while increasing yields. We have since learned these chemicals are not only harmful to the environment, but actually get into our food supply and we, in turn, ingest them.

Only consumer demand will turn the large companies away from these methods and allow us access to healthy foods.

Organic farms do not use chemicals in an environmentally harmful manner. They utilize a blend of old and new technologies and scientific research to balance the Earth’s natural ecosystem. They mange their farms as whole systems to improve the soil and protect the groundwater. They rotate crops from field to field in order to manage pests, weeds, and improve soil health and fertility. They use cover crops, plant select bushes, trees, and flowers to encourage populations of beneficial insects, and will get into the fields with their tractors to keep weeds and pests under control.

CERTIFIED Organic means the products must meet the standards of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1900:

• Farmers and processors are inspected annually by independent inspectors
• No harmful chemicals have been applied to the land for at least 3 years
• Farmers and processors must keep detailed records of practices
• Farmers are required to maintain a written organic management plan
• Products are produced without residual toxic chemicals. Certified organic growers and processors do not use chemicals in an environmentally harmful manner at any stage of production: growing, shipping, handling, storage or processing.
• Dairy cattle cannot be generally or routinely tread with antibiotics or hormones

CERTIFIED Organic food is not 100% pesticide free. Although grown and processed without the use of harmful chemicals, organic crops are exposed to the agricultural chemicals now detected in most rain and groundwater caused by to the nationwide use during the last 50 years. However, the more people buy organic, the more farms will be converted to organic, and less harmful chemicals will wash into the groundwater and drinking water supply and the cleaner things will get for everyone.

"We have not inherited the earth from our fathers, we are borrowing it from our Children"            Lester Brown

Through your purchase of organic food you are supporting organic farming and it’s positive long-term impact on our delicate ecosystem, providing a cleaner earth for future generations.

              WHY EAT ORGANIC?

PROTECT GENERATIONS
The average child receives four times more exposure than an adult to at least eight widely used cancer-causing pesticides in food. They haven’t developed any ability to filter out harmful chemicals and develop residues of carcinogenic substances in growing cells

PREVENT SOIL EROSION
The Soil Conservation Service estimates more than 3 billion tons of topsoil are eroded from United States farmlands 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. In conventional farming the soil is used more as a medium for holding plants in a vertical position so they can be chemically fertilized.

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 ground water in 38 states, polluting the primary source of drinking water for more than half the country’s population. Organic farming does not add to this problem.

SAVE ENERGY
Farms have changed drastically in the last three generations, from family-based businesses dependent on human energy to large-scale factory farms dependent on fossil fuel. Conventional farming uses more petroleum than any other single industry, consuming 12 percent of the country’s total energy supply. More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate and harvest all the crops in North America.

KEEP CHEMICALS OFF YOUR PLATE
Many pesticides approved for use by the EPA were registered long before linking them to cancer and other diseases. Now the EPA considers 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides and 30 percent of all insecticides carcinogenic. A National Academy of Sciences report estimates an extra 4-million cancer cases among North Americans can be attributed to their use. 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.

PROTECT FARM WORKERS
A National Cancer Institute study showed that farmers exposed to herbicides had a risk six times greater than non-farmers of contracting cancer. Field workers suffer the highest rates of occupations-illness in the California, and farm worker health is also a serious problem in developing nations where pesticide use is generally poorly regulated. An estimated 1 million people are poisoned annually by pesticides in the US, an additional 25 million in developing countries.

SUPPORT A TRUE ECONOMY
Although organic foods may seem more expensive, conventional food prices don’t reflect hidden costs borne by taxpayers, including nearly $74 billion in federal subsidies in 1988. Other hidden costs include pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and cleanup, and environmental and social damage. A study by Cornell University concluded that pesticides cost our nation $8 billion annually and soil erosion an additional $24 billion. So what is real cost of a conventionally grown head of lettuce? And can it really even by measured in dollars?

PROMOTE BIO-DIVERSITY
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 plant life diversity has left the soil lacking in natural minerals and nutrients. Chemical fertilizers are used in an effort to make for this and the amounts increase as the soil continues to deteriorate.

Mono cropping, or single crops, are also much more susceptible to pests, causing conventional farms to rely on pesticides. Between 1947 and 1974, crop losses due to insects doubled - partly because some insects have become genetically resistant to some pesticides.

TASTE BETTER FLAVOR
There’s a good reason why many chefs use organic foods in their recipes - they taste better. Organic farming encourages food production which nurtures our soil through the absence of pesticides and the presence of rich compost, crop rotation, the propagation of a variety of crops, living soils, pure water and air, and sustainable agriculture. A plant and it’s product which is nourished this way just tastes better, richer, fuller, than something raised on chemicals, picked prior to peak flavor, trucked across country to warehouses, stored, then resold and reshipped to stores. Your mouth will think it’s the difference between black & white and COLOR!