#1 Global Health Threat

 Climate Change is this century’s greatest worldwide health danger, according to recent report from the University College of London and The Lancet.  Rising temperatures will increase the spread of diseases from mosquitoes, rodents, and ticks.  Diarrhea and cholera outbreaks will multiply as access to clean water declines because of droughts, floods that push sewage into water supplies, and pesticide runoff from conventional agriculture.  Changes in ocean salinity and greater toxicity of our waters endanger fish and seafood supplies.

The United States is warming faster than the rest of the world, and temperatures are projected to rise another two degrees over the next couple of decades.  While more of us are switching to hybrids and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved tougher emissions standards, we’re also buying more electronic devices that gobble up electricity.  Two steps forward, one step back.  Organic production is one way to fight climate change.  Organic farming saves considerably on fossil fuel and buying organic locally reduces transportation costs to the consumer and decreases the impact on the environment.  Even the American Medical Association favors a “sustainable food system” rather than the largely industrialized agribusinesses in place today. 

Smaller, more sustainable organic agriculture isn’t necessarily less cost effective.  Organic soybean farming is 20 percent more efficient than conventional methods.  And in the developing world, organic farming yields considerably more than nonorganic methods, decreasing the risk of worldwide famine from climate change.

Organic companies tend to be at the forefront of green energy, some through the use of alternative power sources.  Many are working to lower their carbon footprints by using green packaging.  “Two and half million tons of nonrecyclable chemical compounds… end up in landfill each year,” says John Bogert, CMO of Coleman Natural Foods, parent company of Petaluma Poultry, the country’s first and largest organic free-range chicken business.  “Removing Styrofoam from our packaging results in 73 percent less volume of waste in the landfill and makes sense for our consumers, our retailers, and the environment.” 

Stoneyfield Farm, the world’s largest organic yogurt company, now offers its cows feed that both lowers methane gas emissions and increases nutritional value of their milk.

In addition to protecting against climate change, buying organic also protects health.  If U.S. agriculture converted to organic and American consumers chose only certified organic imported foods, we could reduce our pesticide exposure 97 percent, according to a report from the Organic Center, a nonprofit research organization.  “Doesn’t a food system that avoids the use of pesticides, synthetic growth hormones, and antibiotics while building healthy soil and protecting natural resources promote health and nutrition?” asks Marion Nestle, PhD. Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at NYU.  “I certainly think so.”

 SOURCE:  Taste for Life  ■ buyorganics!  In the news

SELECTED SOURCES: ■ “Climate-Change Report: From Bad to Worse” by Bryan Walsh, www.time.com, 06/17/09 ■ “Report: Climate Changes Threaten Health” by Salynn Bryles, www.webmd/news, 05/31/09, ■ “The Toxicology of Climate Change…” by P.D. Noyes et al., Environ Int. 08/09 ■ “Update: American Medical Assocaition Votes to Create “Sustainable Food System’,” www.substainablefoodnews.com, 06/17/09