The organic food pathway to glowing good health

It’s becoming increasingly obvious (to us at least) that eating organic food is more than just a nice idea or an optional extra.

If you want to get serious about your health and the health of the planet, eating food that’s produced without chemicals or wrecking the soil is essential.

It’s also the fastest way to create a sustainable food system that’s realistically going to feed our growing population,

Free webinar! The 5 key steps to quick success with fruit trees

The evidence for an organic diet

Does our advocacy for eating organic sound a bit strong?

Don’t worry, we have some convincing pieces of evidence we want to share with you.

The first one is the US-based The Detox Project, which collects evidence on the harm caused by glyphosate. Glyphosate is the chemical in weedkillers like Roundup.

So what? Glyphosate is one of the most used herbicides on the planet, so surely it’s safe for humans, right?

Chemical company Bayer (which bought Monsanto in 2018 and makes Roundup, one of the most common brands of glyphosate) would like you to think so.

There’s now strong evidence to the contrary.

The risks of having glyphosate in your body

In March 2015, the World Health Organisation declared that “glyphosate is a probable human carcinogen”. This was based on the view of 17 top cancer experts from 11 countries, who met to assess the carcinogenicity of five pesticides.

The Detox Project conducted validated glyphosate testing, among other things. One of the things they’ve discovered is that glyphosate can cause damage at much lower levels than previously thought.

This is pretty alarming when you consider that 93% of adults test positive for glyphosate in this study.

Bayer is being faced with thousands of lawsuits claiming that Roundup causes cancer. Monsanto lost three trials in a row, with more than $2 billion awarded in damages against them. Bayer has agreed to around $11 billion in settlements and is still facing thousands of lawsuits from farmers, gardeners, and other users.

The Detox Project has also researched how safety limits for glyphosate are set, which raises all sorts of alarm bells! Read more about whether glyphosate is really safe here.

The good news is that it’s relatively easy to rid your body of glyphosate. This experiment by The Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL) along with Coop, a Swedish grocery chain, showed that the levels of pesticide in your body can be measurably reduced in just two weeks on an organic diet.

View from above of different species of green weeds growing together in the soil — *Glyphosate is mainly used to kill weeds, but in organic fruit growing, weeds are valued for the many benefits they bring to the soil*

Is organic food really expensive?

One of the arguments against eating organic is that it’s too expensive. Sometimes this can be true (depending on how you get your food) but there are lots of ways to keep the cost of organic food down.

The first one is to buy seasonal, locally produced organic food if possible. Despite the common misconception that this is an elitist and more expensive way to shop, it can often be more affordable than mass-produced supermarket offerings.

Farmers markets are one of the easiest ways to connect directly with your local farmers. Also, try searching online for community-supported agriculture (CSA) schemes in your area.

In many states, there are aggregators that collect food from local farmers, aggregate it into boxes, and then deliver it. A couple of great examples in Victoria are Ceres Fair Food and Prom Coast Food Collective.

A bright orange apricot sticking out sideways amongst fresh green leaves, with more orange apricots in the distance — *Eating organic food has been shown to quickly reduce the level of glyphosate in your body*

Why is mass-produced food so cheap?

Ever wondered why organic food can be priced higher than the mass-produced alternative?

One reason is that organic food is usually produced on smaller-scale, regenerative, family farms. These operations tend to factor in the real costs of production.

What if it’s the case that organic food is not too expensive, but that mass-produced food grown with chemicals is too cheap?

The price of food has been held at unrealistically low levels for decades. This is largely because long-term costs, such as depletion of soil carbon and degradation of the environment caused by chemical farming, are left out of the equation.

Three cows close to the camera standing on brown, dry grass eating green vegetable scraps. The cow on the left is brown, the middle cow is white, and the cow on the right is black. — *The cows are outraged at their milk being undervalued!*

Food is unrealistically cheap compared to other things

It’s undeniable that the price of food has become less and less proportional to other expenses. For example, 2 litres of milk in 1910 would cost the equivalent of $26 today, but we expect to pay as little as $1 per litre!

As consumers, we need to be prepared to pay the real costs of producing food. If we don’t, they are often carried silently either by farmers or the environment, and will come back to bite future generations on the bum. Half the world’s topsoil has already been lost, and this massive problem is getting worse every year.

However, the reality is that wages have also been stagnating, while wealth distribution and inequality are getting much worse. The small group at the top of the income scale lives with many times higher income than the majority at the bottom of the scale, and the gap continues to widen.

It’s not surprising that many people need to feed their families on a smaller budget than they previously had. The unpalatable and inequitable truth is that store-bought organics remain a luxury for many.

A young male farmer is standing behind his market table in front of a banner that says "Seedling organic". A customer wearing jeans, a dark blue vest and black hat is standing with his back to the camera talking to the farmer. — *Organic seedlings are a great way to get started with growing your own food*

Truly affordable organics

Do you know what we think is the best solution to this whole mess? (Apart from deconstructing capitalism, but that’s a topic for another blog.)

Grow your own, of course!

It’s the one single thing you can do to give you access to abundant organic food. You’ll also have a positive impact on your budget, your mental health, your physical health, and even your community!

This is why we’re so passionate about helping people learn how to grow their own organic fruit (and by extension, other organic produce in their gardens as well).

Our whole Grow Great Fruit system is based on how to grow fruit without chemicals.

Once you learn the basic skills, it’s not that hard or mysterious. If you want to change the world and fix the food system, start in your own backyard!