Not Plastic Project

“I want it to be more… more… ORGANIC!” My friend Jourdan, who is a filmmaker and an actor, loves this word, ORGANIC. He uses it to describe real, believable, gritty, true. Kinda like what EEI is aiming for on our little side of the world.

So what IS organic, exactly? At least, in environmental terms?

My initial understanding was that it was the freshest of the fresh, food that was untouched by chemicals, and took a little bit longer to produce. And also, it meant that it cost a little bit more than the regular stuff. I also understood it to be better for you since you weren’t feeding your body pesticides. (Eeek.)

Now that puzzled me. If this stuff is so good for you, why does it cost so darned much? If it were cheaper, then I could eat more of it! (Raise your hand if you agree). Personally, I’ve been eating a lot of fruit and vegetables since I decided to shun beef and pork (and other “4-leggeds” as I call them) in 1995. So again, what’s the deal with good, healthy stuff being expensive?!

The term organic, apparently, is an open door to a whole other WORLD. It isn’t just a term that farmers will throw around to label their produce as “healthy”.

Food that is considered organic is serious business, and costs more for a number of reasons:

1. The soil used to grow these crops are free from pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides. Instead, soil is fertilized with compost from natural sources that keep the soil healthier and more receptive to growing strong crops.

2. Synthetic preservatives and genetically-modified ingredients (or GMOs) aren’t used in food processing methods.

3. Animals on organic farms are humanely treated, and are fed organically grown crops. They are not fed any growth hormones or treated with antibiotics.

And an even better reason? Farm workers enjoy safer conditions, since chemicals and all that nasty stuff aren’t present on site. All these factors contribute to the higher ticket price that consumers pay for at the check-out counter. It was a shocking realization on my end, that many of the chemicals used to grow crops on regular farms are linked to carcinogens in one way or another.

CARCINOGENS. In other words, CANCER. Yikes.

There are TONS of organic stuff out there now - organic milk, organic poultry, and yes even organic wine and beer! But to be classified as such, like I found out, is no easy feat. Organic farmers in the U.S. have to go through a stringent inspection by the government before they can pass the organic test, so to speak. I wonder about certification processes in the Philippines?

In Manila, options to go organic have grown. From an almost non-existent presence on the food scene from years back, organic produce is now easily available in supermarkets and specialty stores. Weekend markets, such as the one in Salcedo Park in Makati, also help Filipinos enjoy a wider variety of options to go the organic way.

So what’s the deal with organic? It does cost more, but it doesn’t mean you cannot incorporate even a portion of your diet to eating chemical free produce. It’ll take a bit of effort to think of where buying and eating organic will be most beneficial to my lifestyle, and at the same time, won’t turn me penniless (I’ll be a HEALTHY penniless person, but penniless nonetheless!). Since I am not a big rice eater, I realize that it’ll be better for me to stick to buying organic fruit and vegetables to start, and still have the usual whole wheat bread from our friendly neighborhood panaderia.

Personally, I want to find out if the organic farm industry can actually keep pace with the demands of the world in terms of supplying enough food for everyone. (My guess is, it can’t.) In the meantime, we’ll all have to find a way to enjoy organic food and be more conscious about how our food has been prepared.

And with that, I’m off to explore this whole “organic” thing. It’s driving me little bit nutty, actually. And here I thought organic was just a term you slapped on something that was “chemical free”. I am hoping to find out more about what our own government is doing in terms of organic farming and labeling of its products.

If you have any suggestions, information or articles you want to share about that, I’d love to hear all about it! Here’s to a more organic and healthy lifestyle for us all.

resources:
www.wholefoods.com
www.treehugger.com
www.ams.usda.gov/nop/indexNet.htm (USDA Organics Homepage)