Last night on TV was the show called Bull Shit by Pen and Teller. Has anyone ever seen this show? They take a topic and tear it apart from both views to show that the one side is so off base with injections of wit, sex and flash. Last night’s topic was organic foods, which is the new buzz word for healthy foods. Back in the “80’s the buzz word for healthy food was “natural”.
I always asked what is not natural about an apple? Natural applesauce? I wondered what that was suppose to mean, did the food manufactures put a non-natural apple in there? Aren’t apple’s natural by nature anyway? Obviously the most health conscious want to stand out in front as being the elistist on food for your health. They know more than the average person on healthy nutrition. So now the buzz word is organic.
The show did a great job of doing taste tests of different fruits to determine if the organic foods taste better than the heavily preserved and pesticide laden product found in the those regular grocery stores.
It was very funny to watch these people that only buy organic foods one after another pick the non-organic food as having better flavor and taste. They were very surprized to find that it is not the taste difference that is important in the organic farming ways. What these health elisist don’t know is that pesticides do not have an effect on the quality or taste of the product. Their job is to kill all those unwanted bugs that eat the flowers and fruit of the trees, plants and bushes. They actually help create a more productive crop as oppose to an organic crop where the yield can be much lower, depending on what type of pesticide the organic farmer uses. Yes organic farmers use pesticides also that are labeled organic.
One “expert” in the taste test described how it helps rid the plants of nitrogen containing substanced that cause cancer. I guess he is not aware that nitrogen is one of only 3 nutrients required in the soil for the plant kindom to grow and produce flowers which produce our desired organic foods. hmmmm. The other two being potassium and phosphorus.
Organic foods are to be related to the decreased use of pesticides. All foods are grown the same way, apples off of trees, blueberries from blueberry bushes, tomatoes from tomato plants, onions and potatoes are root vegetables as are sweet potatoes so it’s not the growing method that makes it organic, it is organic to grow foods, it’s the human influence of throwing chemicals all over the trees, bushes and plants, the runoff into our water reserves instead of our soil. We miss many nutrients by not preparing the medium that these plants grow in, that is one of the more important aspects of growing our foods. The second being is when it is picked. This affects the taste, if picked too soon, it will not have the taste since the carbohydrate content is not at it’s highest.
Have you ever had a mango, pear or apple from the store and then one from your neighbor’s back yard? What a difference in taste, A store bought mango is far from ripe and when we leave it out to ripen on the counter, it has to be watched closely since it will turn and spoil sooner than the fruit picked straight from the trees of our neighbors or own back yard. That is one of the many differences between organic and non-organic.
A tradtional farmer needs to constantly replenish the soil, add fertilizer and organic or standard pesticides to protect their production crop, where as the backyard farmer can use thier own raw peelings, eggs shells and coffee grinds to composte and replenish the soil.
If you want the best tasting produce then start your own garden, learn how to create composte, or go to the local farmer of the farmer’s market where is was just picked the day before. Don’t throw all of the produce in the refigerator, some vegtable and fruits need to be refrigerated to keep them fresh and crisp. Let it ripen on the counter and enjoy it over the next 3-5 days. Buy the organic produce if you are going to eat the skin or bake it, if boiling it then most of the chemicals will leach out into the water. Happy eating those tasty foods.
