Explore Coverage

Organic Insider

Must-Read

Another Reason to Eat Organic — Decrease Pesticide Exposure by Up to 95%

If you read in the media or someone tries to convince you that organic doesn’t matter, do not believe them.

It does.

And it could potentially save your life.

In a just-released, peer-reviewed study, four families across the country were fed both an organic and non-organic diet, and the ones who ate all organic saw their pesticide load drop by as much as 95%!

THE STUDY

Led by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, four families from cities around the U.S. — Atlanta, Baltimore, Oakland and Minneapolis — were fed both an organic and non-organic diet, each for six days.

What the results showed were that an organic diet rapidly and dramatically reduced exposure to pesticides in just one week. Levels of all detected chemicals dropped an average of 60.5% with a range of 37% to 95%, depending on the compound.

There were several differences between this study and similar studies that were done before:

1) Greater rigor in the administration of the organic diet versus the ones in other studies. Research assistants shopped for the families, and certified chefs prepared dinners during the organic phase to guarantee 100% organic — down to the oils, spices, beverages, etc.

Prior studies only substituted some categories of food such as fruits, breads, cereals, vegetables, dairy, eggs, juices, and snack foods.

2) This was also the first organic diet intervention study to monitor the impact of an organic diet among both children and adults. Given their different metabolisms and dietary patterns, this provides a useful comparison.

3) This study addressed an important data gap around exposure to neonicotinoids and the potential of an organic diet to reduce these exposures.

What are neonicotinoids? They are now the most widely used insecticides in the world and are among the most commonly detected pesticide residues in baby foods. Neonicotinoids are also associated with endocrine disruption and changes in behavior and attention, including an association with autism.

Additionally, most people probably recognize neonicotinoids as the main reason for Colony Collapse Disorder.

WHAT TO DO

What this study clearly indicates is that eating organic does matter, and people can incorporate the results of this study into their lives in two different ways.

First, you should feed your family as much organic as possible. Be sure to read my post Should you ALWAYS Eat Organic? which talks about the priorities of eating organic.

Two, we very much need your support on the policy level in Washington, D.C., and our elected officials must hear from us.

As someone who has written about the organic food industry for more than a decade, I am sad to report that our federal government is still pushing a GMO, industrial food agenda while trying to marginalize organic as much as it can.

In fact, there are some politicians who want to wipe organic completely off of the map and are trying to water down organic rules as quickly as possible. (This is one of the key topics that I write about in Organic Insider.)

Please call your members of Congress and ask them to support organic agriculture. You can also sign Friends of the Earth’s e-petition HERE.

The truth is that the harmful pesticides that they spray on much of the food supply are poisonous and have absolutely no business being on our dinner plates or in our bodies.

When it comes to protecting your health, organic is the only choice.

A message from E3Live

"My Everyday, Must-Have Green Organic Aquabotanical"

The best testimonial that I can give is that I drink this every single day, as it impacts my mood in an incredibly positive way.

E3Live + BrainON is certified organic, fresh-frozen AFA (Aphanizomenon flos-aquae) with a concentrated, aqueous, organic extract of Phenylethylamine and Phycocyanin.

Learn more.

Go deeper

Living Maxwell

Must-Read

What You Can’t See May Be Greatly Impacting Your Family’s Health

(This is a sponsored post from my partners at Intellipure. I have been using the company’s air filtration machines for well over a decade — many years before I started Living Maxwell.)

After having eaten close to 100% organic since 2001, I have come to realize one thing — food is only one part of the equation.

While I maintain that it is still a very important piece of the puzzle, it is certainly not the only one when it comes to good health. I would put your emotional well-being, the quality of water that you drink, the EMFs that you are exposed to and the air that you breathe all in the same conversation when it comes to optimizing personal wellness.

Yet, arguably, clean air may be the most important thing to address when it comes to your health. Why?

Go deeper Arrow

Organic Insider

Must-Read

The FDA/USDA/EPA launch a GMO Website, But the Bigger Plan is Much More Worrisome

This post originally appeared in Organic Insider. If you would like to receive Organic Insider every other Wednesday, you can sign up for it HERE.

If consumers are seeking fair and balanced information about GMOs, they certainly will not find it on the new FDA/USDA/EPA website called Feed Your Mind.

This site is part of the Agricultural Biotechnology Education and Outreach Initiative, which was funded by Congress, and is intended “to share science-based information that educates, informs and broadens understanding about agricultural biotechnology for consumers.”

Not surprisingly, it presents a very one-sided view of GMOs.

Go deeper Arrow

Living Maxwell

Must-Read

Genetically-Engineered Trees????? Yes, and Why Humanity Should be Petrified

The more time that you spend in the organic industry, the more you learn about what is truly going on and what you find is pretty scary.

While I try to remain as optimistic as possible, the reality is that the organic industry is under a constant existential threat from genetically-modified organisms (GMOs).

Even though organic food has never been more popular, nearly 80% of the food on supermarket shelves contains GMOs and organic remains less than 1% of all farmland acreage in the U.S. While 64 nations around the world require GMOs to be labeled, the U.S. does not. Why?

Because the ag-biotech industry has “purchased” agricultural policy in our country, by spending $572 million on campaign contributions and lobbying from 1999-2010.

Go deeper Arrow
livingmaxwell: a guide to organic food & drink