30/11/2023
ORGANIC FARM PRODUCTS VS INORGANIC FARM PRODUCTS
If you are up to 50 years or so, you remember how simple life was ? You recall we obtained our vegetables & ate them?
We farmed or bought our vegetables from the market where simple farmers planted, & embarked on simple manual practices of removing stubborn w**ds, driving away pests and practiced shifting cultivation for improved yield of farm products.
Those days, we ate simple organic meat & vegetables that kept us very healthy. We had no cancer. We had no diabetes. Children attained puberty at a much later period. There were fewer birth defects.
Those days are fast disappearing.
Now, the business men have taken over & those days of simple organic foods are gone. The business men farmers bring us cheaper foods at the costly price of diseases.
These business men, in a bid to enhance their profit, they had to do the following:
1. To cut down losses from pests & insects that destroyed their produce, they found a cheaper, faster means of killing the pests by spraying chemicals ,called pesticides & insecticides on the farm products. The pesticides & insecticides kill the pests & insects on the plant but they found no way of removing the chemicals. They end up in your tummy.
2. To further cut down on losses from unwanted w**ds & other undesirable plants that compete with their plants on the soil, they also found a cheaper, faster means of killing the stubborn w**ds by spraying chemicals, called herbicides, on the w**ds. Some of the herbicides find their way to the plants.
3. To improve on the yield of the same farm land which they used year after year, they had to introduce synthetic fertilizers, chemicals, providing inorganic nutrients to the plants.
4. To increase profits of farm produce, farmers in US etc have learnt to insert genes in vegetables & fruits resulting in what we call genetically modified organism ( GMO) foods. They do this to increase the size of the food, to increase resistance to certain viruses or toxins, to increase pesticide resistance and to increase resistance to certain powerful herbicides. Most genetic modifications aim to increase farming profitability.
While helping the farmer reduce waste, increase productivity, and increase profitability these chemicals have also been linked to cancers, birth defects, early puberty in children, and prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children exposed to abnormally high levels of pesticides.
Organic vegetables & fruits are known to have higher nutritional value though they are usually expensive considering the natural means of producing them. The natural, organic nutrients of the soil where they are grown (instead of synthetic fertilizers) account for the higher nutritional value of organic foods.
HOW DO WE KNOW ORGANIC VEGETABLES & FRUITS?
Tough question.
It takes a responsible government to save the people from the farmer-business man.
In USA for example, the government intervened to ensure that certain foods produced as organic are certified in the farms by inspectors & the foods are labelled "Organic" as they are sold in the supermarkets.
The Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA), enacted under Title 21 of the 1990 Farm Bill, served to establish uniform national standards for the production and handling of foods labeled as “organic.” The Act authorized a new USDA National Organic Program (NOP) to set national standards for the production, handling, and processing of organically grown agricultural products. In addition, the Program oversees mandatory certification of organic production. The Act also established the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) which advises the Secretary of Agriculture in setting the standards upon which the NOP is based. Producers who meet standards set by the NOP may label their products as “USDA Certified Organic.”
This way, once you enter into a supermarket to buy your groceries, vegetables & fruits you know what you are buying; either the expensive, "USDA Certified Organic" fruits & vegetables, or the cheap, no label vegetables & fruits.
How responsible is your government?
Some folks should form groups that will force the National Assembly to enact laws, and have the Executive enforce agricultural laws that will save us from chemicalized farm products of the greedy business men who have taken over from the humane, once-upon-a-time farmers.
My Suggestions:
If your vegetables like lettuce, carrot, carbage, cucumber tomatoes etc are from big malls, without the "Organic" label, they are likely inorganic, chemicalized farm products. Mostly imported. See those apples they pull out of cartons, imported from wherever? They are inorganic.
Your local vegetables like ugu, bitter leaf, etc bought from local farms are likely to be organic. The more informed you are of the farm the produce are coming from, the better for you.
Properly washing and preparing your fruit and vegetables can significantly reduce pesticide residue and lower the risk of food-borne illness. I beg you, please don't grab an apple & start eating it.
White vinegar, lemon juice and even hydrogen peroxide greatly diluted will remove pesticides without harming produce. Just one tablespoon per gallon of water makes a difference.
Keep vinegar and hydrogen peroxide in dark bottles with clear labels. A sprayer will make them more convenient for everyday use.
Keep a fresh lemon in the refrigerator at all times, and most important of all, take the extra time to scrub; first the hands, then all the most wholesome food one can feel most proud to serve a healthy family.
It is good to soak the fruits or vegetables in the white vinegar for about 3 minutes before washing off.
Peel fruits and vegetables known to contain a wide array of pesticides, such as potatoes, apples and peaches to reduce pesticide exposure.
Part of the project I am considering is to embark on Organic Farming and making Organic vegetables available for sale to health-conscious folks first, in the Lagos Area. I am also prepared to lend my support to whoever desires to champion a move to force our legislators to enact laws similar to that of USDA.
If you do have an Organic Farm in any part of the world, I am prepared to use this page to freely promote your product to our fans in your location. This includes our fans in India, Phillipines, Ghana, UK, USA, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Germany, Japan, Canada, Italy, Singapore etc etc.
In future we shall write on organic & inorganic animal products. Beef, chicken etc etc.
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