Don't Panic, It's Organic!by Dharmendra Kapri | 17-07-2016 03:55 |
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Organic vegetables and fruit are ones which have not been sprayed with chemicals. Normally farmers use chemicals called pesticides on their fields to protect their crops from damage and disease. Pesticides are used to kill bugs which might damage the crops but they can harm other insects too. This means there is less food for creatures which might like to eat those insects, like bats and frogs. Farmers want to grow as much food as possible on their land in a short space of time so a lot of man-made fertilizers are used. This is called intensive farming. Intensive farming can damage the soil so that even more chemicals have to be used which is bad for wildlife and can pollute the streams. There is also less space for wild flowers and plants to grow which would attract wildlife.
If you see the word ?organic? on a label, it means no chemicals were used to grow the plant. Yet sometimes meat and dairy products such as milk, yoghurt, cheese and also eggs are labelled as organic too. This means that the animals are only fed organic food and are looked after better than non-organic farm animals.
Why is it a good idea? Eating foods which may have traces of chemicals on them all our lives can?t be good for us! Organic is better for wildlife and some insects can actually help the plants. Ladybirds and lacewings love eating aphids, those little green flies which destroy plants. So why not? Organic food tends to be more expensive because more people are needed to work on the farms and because farmers can?t grow as much food. However, the more people buy it, the cheaper it will become.
One way to be sure your food is organic is to grow your own! Then you know exactly what you have put on it and you might attract some wildlife too! Try buying at least one organic product every week. |
