Self Action: Eating Organic #3

Day 72 of struggling to eat organically... I'm just kidding. Honestly, eating organically is pretty easy. I've still just stuck with the apples and bananas, mainly because I'm not a huge fan of any of the other organic options. The perks of being a picky eater. The apples and bananas essentially taste exactly like any other apple or banana, just with a lot less poisonous chemicals slowly killing your body. That's a nice thought though, isn't it? Getting to be healthy without any real change in your life except a few extra dollars here and there.

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Yeah, I'm pretty sure no one really wanted to see another picture of apples and bananas, or me actually eating apples or bananas, because that's gross, so there's some nice organic peppers. I don't like peppers but not the point. There isn't any real struggle with eating organically except for the limited selection in stores, and potentially the price if you're tight on money. I like doing it, it's super easy to do and half the time you even forget that the stuff you're eating is organic. I still would encourage people to try it, it can't hurt you anyway. 

Community Action

For my community action, I decided to make some posters to hang up around my neighbourhood, encouraging people to start eating organically.

There's quite a few people who live in my neighbourhood, it's a fairly large area, so I thought this would be a good place to start. I picked my neighbourhood instead of a busy street or down town is because people around here are walking around for fun, looking around and taking their time. People who are walking down town are usually in a rush to get somewhere so they don't notice, or they don't bother looking anyway since there's already so many posters. I thought I'd be able to get more people notice by putting it in an area meant for fun and relaxing.

There's one of my beautiful posters in all of it's glory. If you can't tell, it's hanging right beside a park, which a lot of people like to go for walks around. It should get a lot of reads anyway. I also tried my hand at walking around to give people the posters and talk about eating organically, but unfortunately no one wanted them. It was quite embarrassing for me honestly, I'm already not a big fan of strangers, or talking in general. 

I was trying to get people to eat organically mainly just because it's better for their health. I bet most people don't even know the risks that come with pesticide sprayed food, the complications that could rise up over time. While no one stopped to talk to me, hopefully some people will read the posters I put up, and if they even think of trying organic foods, I'd consider that to be an accomplishment for myself because at least the thought is there now. 

Self Action: Eating Organic #2

So, I recently started eating some organic fruits, apples and bananas to be exact. Going to the grocery store (Superstore) to find organic fruits was actually a bit of struggle, there isn't a really huge selection to choose from. From what I saw, there were organic apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, carrots, tomatoes, and maybe one or two other things I don't remember.

 

There's my lovely, non-smiling face. The price for the apples and bananas honestly wasn't too bad. If you can see in bottom right corner of the first picture, that bag of apples cost $5.98. A regular bag of apples that size usually costs about a dollar less. Not bad, only a dollar more for keeping a good portion of chemicals out of your body. The bananas were 95 cents a pound, regular being 77 cents a pound, which again isn't too bad. I'm sure it can eventually add up, but not like I'm going to go buy 62 pounds of bananas at once.

In terms of taste, there really wasn't a difference. I may have been imagining it, but it did seem like these bananas were a little bit sweeter than they usually are. These apples are also smaller than the regular ones, but no big deal. I don't mind eating organically, it tastes the same, just a little bit pricier. I would encourage anyone else to eat organically if they'd like, if you don't mind spending a few more dollars than normal. That way, you can get a little bit healthier without having to change your lifestyle at all.

Self Action: Eating Organic #1

For my self-action plan to improve myself in some way, I have decided to eat organic. If anyone actually read my last blog, you would of read about the risks that eating foods grown with pesticides would pose to you and to the environment.

For two weeks I will be eating as much organically grown food as I can, most likely putting myself into debt while I do it, but I will do it happily. It'll most likely be mainly fruits and vegetables, but I'll have to shop around to see what I can find.

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I chose to eat organically because that way I would be avoiding a good portion of pesticides used in growing regular food. There are a bunch of nasty, long-term side effects that come with eating foods sprayed with pesticides, like systematic poisoning, cancer, and potentially even death. I want to eat organically to avoid those chemicals, and to get even a little bit healthier.

The Beauty and the Beast of Pesticides

Using pesticides in agriculture is a common practice these days. Its the only effective way of controlling disease organisms, weeds, and insect pests. While there are a bunch of benefits to using pesticides, not many people really consider the downsides of using them, or eating foods that have been sprayed with them.

Pesticides are the only effective way to get rid of mass amounts of weeds, insects, disease, and the other annoying things that come with being a farmer. Since the crops aren't being eaten by birds or insects, and no diseases are killing them off, the crops often get a higher yield, and are a better quality. Not interesting? Think supply and demand. If a good portion of farmers are getting a high yield of lets say wheat, the price of products with wheat in them go down since there's an abundance of it around. Therefore, you get a couple extra dollars in your pocket. Is it worth it? Not quite.

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There is an extreme amount of risks that are involved in dealing with pesticides, and even a lot of long term effects you can get from eating food sprayed with pesticides. Pesticide is essentially poison. It attracts whatever it is trying to kill, and when ingested, that creature gets a nice, slow, painful death. To make that situation even better, long term pesticide residue on your food is slowly killing you. It also increases your risk of cancer over a long term period, which could kill you too. It's a lose-lose situation, really. And if you don't end up dying from that, it doesn't mean you're in the clear. Exposure to pesticides can cause nerve, skin, and eye irritation or damage, headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, and systematic poisoning. It disrupts your endocrine system , the regulation of hormones, the reproductive system, and embryonic development. Your body is supposed to be the safest place for your child, right? Not really. In fact, the Center for Disease Control shows that the average child between the age of 6 and 11 has unacceptable levels of organophosphorus pesticides, chloryrifos, and methyl parathion, both which are known to have neuro-toxic properties.

If you happen to be one of those people who honestly just don't care about the risks that this stuff poses to people, never fear, I have plenty of environmental facts too! If you're one of those people who just doesn't care at all, well, I don't know how you've made it this far.

When pesticides get sprayed, natural resources get degraded from that residue entering streams, or leaching into the groundwater, contaminating the soil and water. That residue accumulates in the water, slowly poisoning the people who drink it, and it also pollutes the air from all those chemicals floating up into the atmosphere. Atrazine was found in 94% of all United States drinking water. How about that, 94% of the country is being poisoned. Most people probably aren't even aware that it's happening.

That pesticide which is supposed to be helping the farmers actually ends up hurting them in the long run. Pesticides damage agricultural land by harming beneficial insect species, soil microorganisms, and worms. They reduce concentrations of essential plant nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, all that good stuff that plants need to actually grow. So how is a farmer supposed to stay a farmer if he's slowly ruining the soil he's using? Thousands of dollars spent on fertilizer, I guess. Also, pesticide residue can harm or kill non-target plants, birds, fish, and other wildlife. So in reality, pesticides are slowly killing you AND the environment off.

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Avoiding foods that have pesticides on them is hard to do these days. However, there are a few ways to get past it a little bit. Try growing your own vegetables at home, if you can. If not, you can buy organic food at the grocery store. Its a lot more expensive than regular food, but in the long run it might be worth it. You might just end saving yourself from a pesticide caused cancer, or death.