Why Natural Farming?

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Why we choose naturally grown food?

We instinctively know that food from a naturally farmed garden is good for our health. If you want to know why we choose naturally grown vegetables over conventionally grown vegetables, please read along.

There are three key points of interest

1. Pesticides
2. Synthetic fertilizer
3. Nutritional value in food

Let us first look at effects of pesticide.



Pesticide

Pesticides are chemical compounds used to control pests in food crops and hence to increase food production. Over the past few decades pesticides have been successful in increasing food production - however, there are unintended consequences that are hazardous to humans and the environment we live in.


In a NCCI (The National Center for Biotechnology Information , a US government agency) published research, scientists say the following about the ill-effects of pesticides:

"Hazards of pesticides: Direct impact on humans
If the credits of pesticides include enhanced economic potential in terms of increased production of food and fibre, and amelioration of vector-borne diseases, then their debits have resulted in serious health implications to man and his environment. There is now overwhelming evidence that some of these chemicals do pose a potential risk to humans and other life forms and unwanted side effects to the environment (Forget, ; Igbedioh, ; Jeyaratnam, 1981). No segment of the population is completely protected against exposure to pesticides and the potentially serious health effects, though a disproportionate burden, is shouldered by the people of developing countries and by high risk groups in each country (WHO, ). The world-wide deaths and chronic diseases due to pesticide poisoning number about 1 million per year (Environews Forum,)."

This article captures the impact of pesticides on humans well - here is a summary of those nasty effects of pesticides:

Cancer

Cancer has been linked in over 260 studies worldwide to agrochemicals. Scientists have linked pesticides with several types of cancers, including that of the breast, prostate, brain, bone, thyroid, colon, liver, lung, and more. Some researchers from USC found that “those who lived within 500 meters of places where methyl bromide, captan and eight other organochlorine pesticides had been applied, they found, were more likely to have developed prostate cancer.”

Obesity and Diabetes

Pesticides have also been linked to obesity and diabetes. Some researchers found a higher prevalence of obesity in the participants with high urinary concentrations of a pesticide known as 2,5-dichlorophenol (2,5-DCP). It is important to note that 2,5-DCP is one of the most widely used pesticides on the globe.

Robert Sargis, MD, PhD, revealed his recent study that agricultural fungicide created insulin resistance in fat cells. The journal Diabetes Carepublished in 2011 that people with excess weight and high levels of organochlorine pesticides in their bodies had greater risk of becoming diabetic.

Parkinson’s Disease

Long-term exposure to herbicides and pesticides have been associated in over 60 studies with Parkinson’s.

Infertility and Birth Defects

One of the most well-known negative effects of pesticides, infertility is continuously found to be a result of exposure to these agrochemicals. Atrazine—a weed killer used in agriculture may be partially responsible for climbing miscarriage and infertility rates.

Other researchers tested roundup on mature male rats at a concentration range between 1 and 10,000 parts per million (ppm), and found that within 1 to 48 hours of exposure, testicular cells of the mature rats were either damaged or killed.

Autism

Admittedly, pesticides aren’t solely to blame for autism, but they may be a hefty part of the equation. Leading scientists are attributing the condition to genes and insecticides exposed to the mother while pregnant as well as to the child in early years.  This is because many chemicals affect the neurology of bugs, inadvertently affecting the neurological function of children, too. A 2010 Harvard study blames organophosphate pesticides—found in children’s urine—to ADHD.


Now, the above maybe enough reason to avoid vegetables grown from conventional farming and choose organically grown vegetables. However, there are few more reasons.






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