There is a lot of speculation regarding organic food, some naysayers regard it as a ploy to charge higher prices as there is no proven evidence that it is healthier.
Personally I don't need scientific evidence to convince me that toxic farming is less healthy than organic, I think it's bleedin' obvious. Food which is produced using environmentally and animal friendly farming methods means animals enjoy the highest welfare standards, organic farms are a haven for wildlife and provide homes for bees, birds and butterflies, in fact, plant, insect and bird life is up to 50% greater on organic farms!
The problem is that the increased demand for cheap food has created an explosion in industrial globalisation, people want quantity over quality, unnaturally pristine fruits and vegetables, super sized chickens as big as Sylvester Stallone, blow the circumstances or the consequences! We're the BOGOF (buy one get one free) society, the 'eat all you can' buffet or carvery customers. We want excess and we have become desensitised to cruelty, suffering or destruction of animals, wildlife and the environment, these are no longer gifts we offer our children for their future, they have been forsaken for big macs and chicken nuggets.
We know that there are substantially higher levels of antioxidants (and more importantly) lower levels of pesticides in organic crops than in conventionally grown produce, at least that much has been proven. Evidence also suggests there is a link between environmental toxins and autism and this evidence keeps growing stronger. Studies have concluded that pregnant women who have been exposed to pesticides are at increased risk of having a child with autism. This begs the question of how safe it can be for pregnant women and young children to ingest food which has been chemically treated?
The subject of organic produce remains speculative, I would rather pay a little bit more and eat a little bit less because in spite of having to be economical I'm certainly never going to starve and I feel I have a responsibility towards the bigger picture.
Most major supermarkets also stock a wide choice of canned organic products such as fruits, vegetables and pulses, in this next recipe I used canned organic pineapple which wasn't a lot more expensive compared with the conventional pineapple.
Tropical salad
Recipe
1 small organic, free range chicken, roasted
1 crisp lettuce
1 can organic pineapple, cut into chunks
A handful of physalis
1 clove garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
Organic mayonnaise
A handful of mixed nuts
1 free range egg per person
Cayenne pepper, optional
In a dry frying pan toast nuts for 5 minutes, set aside to cool
Blend garlic and oil, place lettuce leaves in a bowl and drizzle with oil
Add pineapple and physalis
Add slices of roast chicken
Dress with mayonnaise, scatter toasted nuts over salad and season with salt and either cayenne or black pepper
Top with a softly boiled egg
This salad is delicious served with good quality buttered bread or with buttered potatoes and even though I used organic products it was a very economical meal.
'Me and the folks who buy my food are like the Indians - we just want to opt out. That's all the Indians ever wanted - to keep their tepees, to give their kids herbs instead of patent medicines. They didn't care about Custer or Washington, D.C; just leave us alone. But the western mind can't bear an opt out option. We're going to have to re fight the Battle of the Little Big Horn to preserve the right to opt out, or your grandchildren and mine will have no choice but to eat amalgamated, irradiated, genetically prostituted, barcoded, adulterated fecal spam from the centralised processing conglomerate.'
- Michael Pollan
Love Donna xxxxxxx
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