You Are What You Eat. So Who’s Your Farmer?

Time and time again we always hear how there is no nutritional difference between organic and conventional foods. Why is one called organic and the other conventional? There MUST be some kind of difference, isn’t there?

Let us ask you question, “Who’s your farmer”? Do you know where his or her farm is located? Around the block? 15 miles from your job? Or maybe 5,000 miles from your home? Now let us ask you do you know if your farmer is using pesticides, steroids, or any other chemicals? And if so are any of these chemicals possibly harmful? Well to be quite frank with you, the food that your eating is likely killing right now and you don’t even know it!!

Finding out where your food comes from and what is use to produce it is one of the most important decisions you can make towards living a healthier life. Because our daily schedules are full with work, kids, family, school, and other activities we rarely stop to think about where our food comes from and it’s production. One of the best ways to find out where your food comes from is by taking a trip with your family to your local farm or farmers market. There you can get all the right information about the food that is being grown. Information such as is the food being grown organic, how long has the land been certified organic, if not what types of pesticides or, steroids, if any are being used.

“Methyl bromide is a fumigant gas used nationally to protect crops from pests in the soil and to fumigate grain bins and other agricultural storage areas. Methyl bromide was linked to the risk of prostate cancer in the entire group, while exposure to six other pesticides was associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer only among men with a family history of the disease.” National Cancer Institute

“Six chemicals in all, including two fungicides (Benomyl and Maneb/mancozeb) and two insecticides (Carbaryl and methyl/ethyl parathion) were found to double the risk of developing skin cancer with repeated exposure of more than 50 lifetime days. The incidence of cutaneous melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, tripled from 1975 to 2006 in the United States, and it has been estimated that there will be 68,720 new cases of melanoma and 8,650 melanoma deaths in 2009.” Environmental Health Perspective

“The chemical has been banned in the European Union since 2004 but is still one of the most widely used herbicides in the U.S. with 77 million pounds applied in 2003.  It has infiltrated its way into the drinking water of an estimated 33 million Americans, and the article explains that there have been breakdowns in regulation and oversight of atrazine levels in public water.” Eileen Mericle Ames in a Des Moines Register newspaper article titled, “Pesticides Lead to Much Destruction.”

It is generally accepted that one contributing factor to the fall of Rome was excess lead poisoning (or plumbism) which disproportionately affected the aristocratic class.  It would probably be unfair to chalk this up to hubris since the ancient Romans lacked sophisticated knowledge about the neurotoxic effects of lead.

Our culture, however, has no excuse.  We have information at our finger tips and technology advancing at the speed of light (at least to us it seems like it). So take initiative and find out where your local farms are located. Be proactive in always asking questions. Don’t always assume that just because you might be eating your fruits and vegetables that they are always safe for you. Food for thought. You are what you eat!!