“ORGANIC FOOD”: FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW

“ORGANIC FOOD”: FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW

Pandemic has made people change their attitude towards food.

  • Realised the ignorance for health issues for many years
  • Importance of healthy food and healthy lifestyle
  • Strengthened the appetite for organic food
  • Massive increase in “Organic” food production and sales

Here I bring to you how the Facts about Farming, its methodology and for you to decide the future:

CONVENTIONAL AGRICULTURE

  • Use of cattle fed with natural food and grazed on the wastelands ,for farm works
  • Birds were grown on the farm for meat and eggs, which fed on insects n worms.
  • Animal waste, bird waste and crop residue were used as manure to provide rich nutrition to plants

Facts about Conventional Agriculture

  • Naturally grown
  • Healthy Crop

However, it brought along with it:

  • Soil and land deterioration over a period
  • After every crop, the plant becomes less and less healthy
  • Less Yield – BIGGEST PROBLEM

And so………………

To meet with the demands of the increased population and overcome the disadvantage we discovered:

INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE

  • Intensive agricultural methods became a norm
  • Machinery replaced animals
  • sharp decline in dependency on manual labour
  • Artificial manures found its way into the fields
  • Seeds were no longer used from the previous crop but purchased from seed manufacturers.

FACTS about Intensive agriculture

  • Uses synthetic chemicals as pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers for high yield
  • Usage of harmful chemicals for food production and processing to curb out food spoilage
  • Administering Animal rearing antibiotics and growth hormones to the animals for increasing productivity and to prevent diseases.

Conventional farming practices delivered great results in the start.

  • The crop was free from pests, bacterial and fungal diseases
  • There was massive increase in crop yields.

However,

  • The problem of resistance to these artificial pesticides, fungicides emerged as grave problem leading farmers to huge losses
  • Stronger the dosage of the drug, stronger became the pests.
  • As the Pests become resistance to current and new pesticide they evolve genetically becoming worst nightmare and forcing scientist to invent or design newer molecules which are more and more lethal and the story of chemical fertilizers becoming more and more harmful goes on

In fact, I would also like to present to you,

STUDIES ON CORRELATION BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL FOOD CONSUMPTION AND HUMAN HEALTH

Residues of these harmful chemicals have become a part of our diet via food chain and it has shown adverse effects on human health.

  • Parkinson’s disease
  • Type 2 diabetes
  • Certain types of cancers including non-Hodgkin lymphoma and childhood leukaemia or lymphomas
  • Neurotoxicant and endocrine disruption of foetal life and early childhood
  • According to a Danish study on children, there were severe effects on the sexual development and brain function.
  • Studies carried out in US on prenatal organophosphate exposure has revealed abnormal reflexes in neonates, delayed psychomotor and mental development in early childhood.
  • Mineral fertilizers contain Cadmium in various amounts. Source of cadmium is the phosphate rock which is the raw material for phosphate fertilizers. Cadmium causes kidney malfunctions and bone demineralization.

PRESENT DAY-ORGANIC FARMING

  • Relies more on prevention
    • practices such as crop rotation
    • Intercropping
    • Introduction of resistant varieties and biological plant protection
  • Food grown without harmful chemicals is the concept of organic agriculture

International Federation of organic agriculture movements (IFOAM) defines organic farming as

“Organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with diverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved”.

But………………

Facts about present day organic Farming:

  • Organic farming is still a grey area for many
  • There is no defined test to conclude organic products are fully organic
  • There are lot of products in the market which are sold as organic but contains chemicals which are harmful to human health

AND SO, the question arises …

How do we learn from the past, use the latest technologies and come up with a solution?

Future for Organic Farming

Over the period of years science has time and over again proved that microorganisms play a vital role in plant, animal and human health. This tiny little bacteria, fungi and yeast when used properly can create wonders and thus the study called as biotechnology came into existence.

We have been able to create wonderous medication using biotechnology which have helped in various disease control.

Stay tuned to my next blog on biotechnology for Agriculture , how Exome products are in a way revolutionary and game changing