Organic food, Organic thoughts

~As an Eater in an American society, I have recently became a stereotyped

“hippy.” As the food industry has become more and more of an economic industry,
meaning producers seek consumption rather than quality production; food quality
has decreased while food prices have increased at a skyrocketing momentum.
Organic foods that come from environmentally aware, and sustainable corporations
have filled my shopping list as I have become more educated on the food industry,
where food is coming from in an agricultural sense, and the carbon footprints that
come along with being a consumer of food products.

To begin, as soon as I knew the difference between “All Natural” and “Organic,” I was
shocked to know that buying All Natural foods doesn’t mean much in terms of where it is
coming from, how it was produced/ processed, or how far it is traveling from to get to my local
supermarket. All natural only refers to artificial colors, sweeteners, and synthetic nutrients that
are used to grow plants. The difference between this and Organic is the fact that Organic
Farming entails the natural way of agriculture. This means an organic farm uses nothing artificial
and they don’t use anything synthetic in any of their agricultural processes. For instance, meat
that comes from “All Natural” brands and corporations still may have been fed with industrial
corn or even worse, it’s own manure. In clarification, industrial corn is mass produced corn that
has foreseen genetic mutations performed in a lab, to grow faster, bigger, and in more harsh
conditions. Industrial corn is made with various types of synthetic nutrients and fertilizers, and
scientist have literally changed it’s genetics to grow it in mass. In regards to the manure, there
are ranches across the US that are licensed to hold thousands upon thousands of cows for the
ranchers financial benefit. These farms are called feedlots, and feedlots reuse the cow’s manure
for the cows food. So the cows literally eat their own sh*t. Meat and other alike products that
come from feedlots can be used by “All Natural” brands and generic brands. Organic farming by
law actually can’t do anything of this sort, so I really feel like the food products are much
cleaner, and humane; and this is why eating primarily organic food products fits my ethic.
However besides the food, I have started walking into the health food stores for more personal
reasons. I find myself appreciating the culture surrounding being food conscious and caring
about living a naturalistic lifestyle. I enjoy the way everyone in those stores looks at each other
and automatically knows that they are conscious and in touch with themselves and their health. I
enjoy being a hippy!
 Secondly, organic, local food products, I am very fond of due to the local economic
support, the small business support, and the decreased size of carbon footprints. Buying from
local business supports your local economy because the more money put in, the more money put
out. Otherwise, supporting small business is important because it lessens the amount of revenue
bigger companies are bringing in, creating improvements in the extremely unequal national
economy- even if you are just an individual supporting a small business, it creates a more aware
society in time. In regards to the carbon footprint, when buying from local farms, you are being
environmentally friendly in a number of ways. First off local farms produce less food than
industrial farms. This results in decreased amounts of energy resources needed for agricultural
reasons, and much smaller amounts of packaging/ transporting materials. Overall, supporting
Organic Local Farms is not only beneficial to everyone in the community, but is for your own
health and happiness as well. Ethically speaking I am a people person and supporting small
communities and the people within them has become a large portion of my ethic, simply
because, of Love.

To elaborate, going further than the “USDA Organic” mark on foods, I search my hardest
for products that are also “Non GMO Project Certified” and support sustainable environmental
projects like the “Rainforest Alliance.” GMO stands for genetically modified organisms, which
goes back to the crops genetically designed to grow in mass and be resistant to natures natural
conditions. GMOs roam into the food chart behind our backs and actually cause many scary
health issues that the majority of people are unaware of. For example genes put into GM
(genetically modified) soy, can actually enter the DNA of bacteria living inside of us leaving
behind Artificial DNA, and the toxic insecticide produced by GM corn has been found various
times in various cases in the blood of pregnant women and their unborn children. Scary isn’t it.
Projects like the Rainforest Alliance and the Forest Stewardship council are non- governmental
non profit organizations promoting important things like safe land practice and sustainable
conservation of forest and the species living within them. This is not only important for the
nature, but for the people living around that nature, which is important to me and my food ethic
because it is ethereal love, meaning love for the natural and human roots of the earth. Ethically
speaking, being an environmentally aware hippy has caused some turmoil in this stuck up society
though if I’m being honest. I find my peers, friends and especially my family judging me for
caring so much about these things, they find it ridiculous that I center my eating habits around
things like trees and foreign cultures. I believe that I am however making more of a difference
than they ever had or will though, and this is why being educated on these things is crucial for
humanity.

As an recently educated eater in an American Society, not only am I now a hippy because
I eat lots of tofu and organic products, I am also someone who would be labeled a hippy because
I am passionate about protecting nature and it’s ancient ways, at the same time as being
passionate about protecting people, their health, and my own health. The food industry is an
economic industry, and the more we promote and become aware of the topics I have discerned,
the less it will be about money and the more it will be about love.