Organic Food Advantages for Families

~ This organic food advantages article was written by Kris Bovay at  www.organic-food-for-everyone.com

Organic food advantages include benefits at both a family level and at a global level. These benefits include a sustainable approach to farming and gardening and a decrease in pollution caused by use (and overuse) of chemicals in fertilizers and pesticides. For a family, the impact of growing, buying, cooking and eating organic food is significant.

Organic Composting

Many cities across North America are requiring composting of organic materials – to keep those materials out of the landfills. If your family begins an in-home composting program, the next step is to use the material from the compost containers or bins to create a vegetable garden or to add it to your indoor herb garden or to your cherry tomato planters on your balcony or deck.

Organic composting will help you build a rich soil that provides a good environment for vegetables, fruits and other plants. When my children were younger, one of their favorite activities was helping to plant the garden seeds each spring and watch them grow; what child doesn't like to get their hands in the dirt?

They also enjoyed 'harvesting' the vegetables when ready (and sometimes before they were ready). The flavor of freshly pulled carrots, radishes, tomatoes, lettuce, green beans, potatoes and other vegetables and fruit is just so much tastier and stronger when organically grown; and even better when you grow the produce yourself.

Organic Food Advantages are Numerous

If you don't have the time or the space in your home to grow organic fruit and vegetables, then buying organic food is easy. You can find organic food at local farmers markets, at local stores and retailers; it is easily accessible. All larger grocery chains have an organic food section. Look for the organic certification on the dairy products (yogurt, cheese, milk), meats, seafood, and canned products and fresh fruits and vegetables.

If you find that your local store does not have a good organic food selection, then talk to your store manager and ask for more organic products – usually if they have customers requesting specific foods they will take notice. Many areas in North America and in the UK offer home delivery or box schemes: weekly organic food deliveries to your front door.

One of the concerns of buying organic products is the cost because the organic process is more time consuming and can be more costly. What our family has found is that we buy less but also waste less. We're a family of five and we used to buy big bags of apples, oranges, potatoes, etc. Now when we buy fresh organic fruit we try to limit it to what we can eat today and tomorrow so that we don't let the fruit go bad (we used to throw our overripe fruit into the compost).

Now we have two organic apple trees that give us good fruit, an organic garden that yields all our vegetables for the summer (lettuce, tomatoes, chives, green beans, peas, carrots, radishes, beets, and even corn (though that takes up a bit of room). During the winter we grow organic herbs indoors and buy as much local organic fruit and vegetables as possible – many local farmers continue to grow organic winter vegetables till late in the Fall season.

The advantages of organic food for families include changing how we look at food, how we cook with food, how we access food – by growing some of our own food and by buying what we need from local farmers and local producers as much as possible. Organic food advantages include food that tastes better and that is healthier for you and your family. The additional benefits of organic food are that as we minimize or eliminate the chemicals that we ingest we also minimize the chemicals that we put back into the environment.

You and your family can benefit from healthier foods that are not genetically modified, that are not chemically treated, that are not produced using intensive farming techniques; and the planet can also benefit. Grow your own organic food or buy organic products at local markets or stores; it's a better way of life.



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