RSS10 Ways Growing an Organic Garden Can Help Your Health and Budget
Posted by shari | Under Uncategorized Saturday Aug 29, 2009- Get the nutrition you need & enjoy tastier food
Many studies have shown that organically grown food has more minerals and nutrients than food grown with synthetic pesticides. And there’s a good reason why many chefs use organic foods in their recipes — they taste better. - Save money
Growing your own food can help cut the cost of your grocery bill. - Protect future generations
The average child receives four times more exposure than an adult to at least eight widely used cancer-causing pesticides in food. - Prevent soil erosion
More than 3 billion tons of topsoil are eroded from the United States’ croplands each year. In conventional farming, the soil is used more as a medium for holding plants in a vertical position so they can be chemically fertilized. As a result, American farms are suffering from the worst soil erosion in history. - Protect water quality
Pesticides — some cancer causing — contaminate the groundwater in 38 states, polluting the primary source of drinking water for more than half the country’s population. - Save energy
Modern farming uses more petroleum than any other single industry, consuming 12 percent of the country’s total energy supply. More energy is now used to produce synthetic fertilizers than to till, cultivate and harvest all the crops in the United States. - Keep chemicals off your plate
The EPA considers 60 percent of all herbicides, 90 percent of all fungicides and 30 percent of all insecticides carcinogenic. Pesticides may cause an extra 4 million cancer cases among Americans. - Protect farm workers & help small farmers
Farmers exposed to herbicides have six times more risk than non-farmers of contracting cancer. And organic farming could be one of the few survival tactics left for family farms. - Promote biodiversity
Mono-cropping is the practice of planting large plots of land with the same crop year after year. The lack of natural diversity of plant life has left the soil lacking in natural minerals and nutrients, and single crops are also much more susceptible to pests, making farmers more reliant on pesticides. - Help beautify your community
Besides being used to grow food, community gardens are also a great way to beautify a community, and to bring pride in ownership.
Source: FoodMatters August 5, 2009
