As is the Tribal Custom in the home of the Sustainability Nuts, one day a week a huge box of Organic Products arrive on our front doorstep.
We then enjoy crunchy apples (I absolutely loathe those pasty ones you get from the shops), really tasty carrots (I mean even tasty with the skin on!), a squillion tomatoes (we eat lots of these), the regular mix of fruit and vegies, organic chips, and the most amazing vegetarian mushroom pate… which I admit no one else has had the opportunity to sample, because I sequester myself in the bedroom with a spoon and organic chippies, and dribble with pleasure to my heart’s content as I gobble both down in ecstasy. LTSH (Long Term Suffering Husband) is yet to discover the pate – and I’m doing my best to keep this information under wraps…
Besides I’m justifying my behaviour because of the Mexican Stand-off we have over the Organic Popcorn.
Now, this isn’t just any organic popcorn… Cobs is the brand name and I believe they have several yummy flavours, but the one we’ve been getting is the ‘Lightly salted, slightly sweet’ variety. It’s Gluten Free – not that we have any challenges with gluten products, and the popcorn contains nothing artificial (no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives – so LTSH doesn’t come up in hives or something atrocious), it’s also cholesterol free, and contains no GM (genetically modified) ingredients. Cobs Fine Foods’ catch-cry is that their Popcorn is the tastiest popcorn imaginable.
And at the risk of having a ‘food affair’ behind my mushroom pate’s back – I have to agree – Cobs Organic Popcorn has won my heart. If you ever get the opportunity to try it, do so! Even our Organic Produce delivery company must know how good it is, because when I received our first order, they had added a complimentry packet of Cobs “Lightly salted, slightly sweet” Popcorn in our box.
Hmmmm, smart marketing; we’ve been ordering the packets ever since!
Yumbo! Now, if I could just somehow get the delivery people to camouflage the packets in the box, some may survive LTSH’s greedy hands… or maybe I could tell LTSH about the pate…
Now the question becomes: Why buy Organic over the pesticide-absorbed, genetically modified, carconegenic produce?
Hmmmm, let me think…
The upside of Organic Foods to you: Did you know…
- that Organic Produce is grown minus synthetic chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides or genetic modification?
- Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) found 36 residual pesticides over a range of common non-organic foods?
- that toddlers eating mostly Organic Products have less than one sixth the pesticide residue in their urine than children who eat non-organic food?
- statistics show greater incidences of birth defects in children living near farms that use pesticides?
- that pesticides are expensive – which bumps up the price you are charged for the produce?
- that Australian Government Analytical Laboratory Reports state that organically grown vegetables can contain (on average) up to 10 times more nutrients than chemically fertilised vegetables?
- studies prove that Organic Food contains higher levels of Vitamin C, Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Chromium and Antioxidants (those little thingies that help prevent cancer)?
- Organic Produce tastes better? This is because the non-organic fruit and vegetable varieties that you buy in the shops are chosen for their heavy yields – not their taste – (and are stored for long periods of time). Because chemicals, artificial ingredients, preservatives and irradiation are not used in Organice Produce, you really do get a fresher product closer to nature, tasting the way it was meant to.
The upside of Organic Foods to the environment: Did you know…
- chemical fertilizers pollute rivers and contribute to toxic algal blooms in coastal waters?
- that when the algae grows out of control it strips oxygen from the water killing the fish and other aquatic life?
- pesticides also kill the ‘good bugs’ which were responsible for the role of pollinating?
- pesticides travel up the food chain – killing and poisoning along the way? For example, a grub is poisoned, and so then is the Curlew who eats it. Or consider the Tawny Frogmouth who eats poisoned insects over time. He/she ingests the pesticide that made that insect slower (and therefore an easy meal). The poisons are stored in the bird’s body. Then as times become ‘lean’ (there are less insects due to either spraying or weather conditions) the Tawny Frogmouth draws on the excesses of its body fat – and with it, the poisons stored in its system – all in one go. The bird then either dies, or becomes so ill it cannot search for food and then dies of starvation.
- certain fertilizers poison our wildlife? For example, trees that have been sprayed with Phosphate Fertilizer poison possums and gliders.
- that fertilizers contribute to Greenhouse Gases?
- artificial fertilizers use ‘steroid-like’ compounds to increase yields of plants? And the question we need to ask is: what impact is this having on the soil, the environment… and you and your family???
Now I know why I looooooooooove my Organic Produce.