Digging In The Dirt: Understanding The Production Of Organic Food
Looking at the special section of the produce department labeled “Organically Grown” in your local supermarket might leave you scratching your head a bit. Are not all vegetables grown in the same manner? You put seed in some dirt, add water, and watch your veggies sprout. How is the production of organic food, especially fruits and vegetables different from other identical foods? And is there really something to the hype that it is healthier than the lush looking spreads of lettuce and tomatoes that were grown commercially? There is much more to the cultivation and production of organic food than most people realize.
Producing The Clean Produce
Before anyone can really understand organic food production, it is important to understand exactly what organic food is. The simplest and easiest definition of organic food is to call it clean. Organic farmers use only their hands, water, and the sweat off their brow to grow their crops; there are not any fertilizers or pesticides sown into the ground. Every single vegetable and piece of fruit is completely natural. It is, in essence, the same food that settlers and colonists were enjoying more than two centuries ago.
Organic food production begins before the first seeds are ever planted. Timing really is everything when it comes to calculating the right times for sowing. And since farmers do not use any chemicals to aid plant growth, they must rely on old fashioned methods like crop rotation to encourage soil productivity. Green manure and compost are also effective natural fertilizers, as well as a formidable way to help control pests. Policies established in the late 1970s are helpful in regulating the world wide organic farming community. Almost five percent of farmland in the United States and around the globe operate as organic farms. This number is steadily increasing all the time.
The recent awareness of positive changes that eating organic food can bring about has caused a definite rise in organic food production all over the world. Poultry, dairy, and even some fish products are available without the additives and chemicals people have become so accustomed to ingesting. Millions of dollars a year are now being spent by consumers who want a healthier way to eat and live. Organic food information can be easily researched on the internet, in books, and also magazines. Advancements and research in the field of science is proving the benefit to eating these “clean foods” over products that contain artificial additives and other types of chemicals.