Why Organic?
Organic foods are crops grown without pesticides, genetic modification, synthetic fertilizers, or waste materials like sewage sludge. Organic also means meat, dairy, poultry, and eggs from animals that are raised without hormones or antibiotics. They are fed on “natural” pasture (grass fed) and organic feed, not feed enhanced with slaughterhouse waste.
There are different definitions of natural foods. The natural foods definition that Easy Gourmet Meals abides by is the most stringent. We use natural meats and poultry raised without the use of antibiotics, hormones, and growth stimulants. They are fed 100% vegetarian feed and raised humanely on farms or ranches that practice sustainable agricultural methods. The animals or poultry have not been cloned or genetically engineered. The raw meat and poultry have not been enhanced with phosphates and water.
There have been so many studies, producing scientific proof that organic food is much better for the human body and our environment, that it would be impossible to decide which are the most important. Most involve the use of antibiotics, growth hormones or pesticides.
ANTIBIOTICS AND HORMONES
One of these studies has influenced the Union of Concerned Scientists to estimate that of the 34 million pounds of antibiotics administered each year in the U.S., 70% goes to healthy livestock to stimulate growth and prevent disease. This massive usage could help develop super-strong strains of drug-resistant bacteria that can spread to people. Developed countries around the world, except for the United States and Canada, have set regulations restricting such use.
For these reasons, the World Health Organization has recommended repeatedly that antibiotics used on humans not be prescribed to promote livestock growth. And in June 2001, the American Medical Association went on record opposing the use of antibiotics, in agriculture, for non-therapeutic use in healthy animals.
Generally, the use of antibiotics is accompanied by the use of growth hormones. While growth hormones naturally occur in all milk, non-organic dairy cows may also be injected with additional growth hormones (rBGH/rBST) to increase milk production. Several countries in Europe as well as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan have already banned these hormones because of concerns regarding their potential effect on human and animal health.
While these studies cause concern about the use of antibiotics and growth hormones, recently, milk from pasture-raised organic cows has been shown to have significantly higher levels of vitamin E, Omega 3 essential fatty acids, beta carotene and other antioxidants than milk from conventional cows raised in confinement. This proves that there are other benefits of using organic dairy products and meat.
PESTICIDE STUDIES
Why use organic produce? In 1998, a Consumer’s Report study concluded that fresh fruits and vegetables labeled organic had either no pesticide residues or fewer, lower-level pesticide residues compared to those produced conventionally. An apple grown and harvested conventionally can have as many as 36 different pesticides sprayed on it, according to the Washington D.C. based environmental working group (EWG) which cites government research. Another study published in Food Additives and Contaminants found that conventional produce, when compared with organic produce, was three times more likely to have pesticide residue and six times more likely to have residue from multiple pesticides.
Pesticide and other toxins reside in the fat in our bodies. Studies show that women with breast cancer have 60% to 80% higher levels of toxics in their breast tissue than women with healthy breasts. The now abandoned pesticide Chlordane is an example of one toxic. These are two links you may want to take a look at if your house was built between 1950 and 1988. http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts31.html and http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2002/jul2002_report_curcumin_01.html
CHILDREN AND PESTICIDES
The issue of pesticide residues is particularly pertinent to children, who consume more food per pound of body weight than adults. They are also likely to be more sensitive to the effects of pesticides and other chemicals in food, due to their rapidly developing nervous systems.
A study from the University of Washington and published in Environmental Health Perspectives found that children who ate a predominantly organic diet had far lower levels of pesticide residue in their bodies than the children who ate mostly non-organic foods. In fact, the children who ate more non-organic foods had pesticide metabolite levels six to nine times higher than those on organic diets.
PRENATAL AND PESTICIDES
Unfortunately, pesticide residue can even affect the child in the womb. The placenta, which does such an admirable job at keeping bacteria and viruses out of the womb's watery habitat, is ill-equipped to serve as a barrier to toxic chemicals. Pesticides that are made up of smaller molecules are afforded free passage. They slip easily from the mother's bloodstream into the blood of the baby's umbilical cord. Pesticides made of bigger, heavier molecules are partly broken down by the placenta's enzymes before they pass through. But, ironically, this transformation sometimes renders them even more toxic.
We have much to learn about the reproductive effects of pesticides in use today. In the meantime, eating organic—like sobriety, seatbelts, and not smoking—makes good prenatal sense.
While our problems with ingesting pesticides are great, pesticides cause problems even more far reaching. Pesticides do not adhere to the fields in where they are sprayed. They evaporate and rise into the jet stream. They drift for miles in the wind. They fall in the rain. They are detectable in fog. They insinuate themselves into the crystalline structures of snowflakes. They follow storm run-off into gullies and streambeds. They descend through soil into groundwater.
Organic agriculture does not poison wells and reservoirs. It does not bring ruin to vineyards and orchards. It is respectful of snow, fog, wind, and rain—our life support system.
This has covered briefly, some of the problems with antibiotics, growth hormones and pesticides in food. . Following is a link for State of Evidence, 2006 which is a really thorough report on all the studies done that show how our environment is affecting our health. http://www.breastcancerfund.org/site/pp.asp?c=kwKXLdPaE&b=1370047
We hope that this explains why Easy Gourmet Meals is so focused on natural and organic.