Organic food is food that is grown or processed without the use of synthetical pesticides, chemical fertilizers, radiation, the impact of industrial emissions or addition of chemical additives.
The movement for the use of organic food in the diet began in 1940 in response to the Green Revolution. The green revolution made a significant increase in the production of food through the new high-yielding varieties, the use of pesticides and improved management techniques in innovative agriculture and food industry.
- Researchers say that organic food is significantly different from the traditional by the content of nitrates, potential allergic reactions or cases of campylobacteria infection. In addition, numerous studies have shown that organic food is tastier than common.
- Organic food is usually more expensive than conventional foods. Sometimes its cost is 50% higher than that of food produced by modern effective methods.
- Unlike organic, an apple grown in conventional method can be chemicalized up to 16 times by 30 kinds of different chemicals.
- Modern studies have shown that people can buy organic food, undergoing the so-called halo effect. That is to say, the label of an organic product can cause people to perceive the taste, calorific capacity and nutritional value of the product in a different way, even if this food is made according to generally accepted technologies.
- Conventionally grown apples, sweet pepper, peaches, strawberries, nectarines, grape, potatoes, spinach, celery, lettuce, cucumbers, blueberries, green beans, and cabbage – are all fruits, vegetables and herbs that have the highest level of pesticide content. But pineapples, onion, sweet corn, green peas, avocado, white cabbage, asparagus, mango, eggplants, kiwi fruit, melon, potato, grapefruits and mushrooms, which are grown conventionally, have the lowest level of pesticide-harmful substances.
- Numerous studies show that organic milk and milk produced by conventional method have the same level of impurities, including growth hormones. American pediatricians emphasize that for children it’s important to drink heat-treated milk to stem the risk of bacterial infection.
- Researchers argue that organic products have a higher level of phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, C vitamin, calcium, potassium, and iron. This difference is particularly noticeable in products of animal origin: meat, eggs, dairy products.
- Organic agriculture is less harmful to the environment, because it’s based on the achievement of natural balance and biodiversity. Without the use of herbicides and pesticides that pollute the environment, wildlife can flourish. Since organic production doesn’t use agrochemicals and mineral fertilizers, we have a low level of greenhouse gas emissions.
- A worker of the Copenhagen Zoo, Niels Melchiorsen told an interesting fact about monkeys. They have an eye for organic food. Chimpanzees are able to distinguish organic fruits from conventional. If they are given at once both organic and usual bananas, they always choose organic one and consume it with the skin. But they peal ordinary bananas before eating.
In America has recently appeared a new technology that moulds food waste into vodka. Having learned that the dried bread, bagels and cakes that we throw into the garbage containers can be distilled into alcohol, Sam Chereskin and Whit Rigali founded a new brand of vodka, called Misadventure, which is made from completely processed food waste. At the Southern California distillery, up to 19 thousand ounces of dry bakery products are collected every week. Alcohol is produced through the distillation process, and then delivered to the bars, restaurants and retail chains in California.
Interesting facts prepared by J4l.com