Organic Food

Many people have concerns about the amount and nature of the pesticides and chemical fertilisers that are used on our food. Before the twentieth century, all food could be described as being organically grown, as none of the pesticides that we associate negatively with today had been invented or implemented yet. The amount of new synthetic chemicals in the food supply made some people think twice about what they were eating, and as a result the organic farming movement was formed in the 1940s in retaliation to the use of pesticides, and the industrialisation of agriculture.

Artificial and synthetic pesticides have been attributed to several health concerns, especially affecting the farm workers that work on farms using such pesticides. It is worth pointing out that pesticides get into the system of any farm worker, organic or not, ending up in the air and in the bodies of the workers, and it is only the nature of the pesticide that has caused problems. Organophosphate pesticides in particular have become associated with physical issues such as headaches, abdominal pain, vomiting, and skin and eye problems.

People choose to eat organic food for many different reasons, often depending on their sensibilities, personal beliefs and preferences. Some people consider the moral aspect, such as not subjecting farm workers to the dangerous levels of artificial chemicals if it is not necessary. Others simply do not like the idea of consuming food that has had something unnatural involved in the process of its creation.