Why Choose Organic?

Organic foods and products are much easier to come by nowadays, but they still tend to be more expensive. Although greenwashing runs rampant in response to the increased demand for more natural options, the organic label still means something.

Some food labeling is hardly regulated - e.g. "natural" doesn't mean much - but companies have to go through a certification process to be able to claim that their products are organic. They must prove no herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides were used on the land for at least three years and the product had no genetic modification.

Organic farming relies on crop rotation to keep pests from accumulating and to keep soil fertile; "building" nutrient-rich, self-sustaining soil with naturally derived fertilizers like compost; and using methods like planting cover crops to further protect the plants and soil. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in charge of ensuring the safety of farming chemicals. A few hang-ups here are that sometimes chemicals aren't known to be carcinogenic until years later (e.g. DDT) and that the EPA is basing safety recommendations on the assumption that someone will only ingest small quantities of them in the residue left on the produce. While that little bit of residue might not be very harmful in itself, the cumulative effect of ingesting (and using) a lot of products with small amounts of toxins over a lifetime may create serious health concerns.

Over the course of history, man has crossbred plants to produce hardier crops. In the past couple decades, man has gone even farther than that by manipulating DNA to produce organisms that couldn't be found in nature. A big example of this is "Roundup Ready" seed by Monsanto, which produces crops that have Roundup inside them. What could a traditional farmer crossbreed to create a plant like this naturally? Nothing - it can only be produced in a lab. Experiments have also been done to change plant and animal DNA to bring out more of an intrinsic trait or borrow traits from another species.

Most people just think of dirt when they hear the word soil, but in reality soil is an ecosystem. Plants need to pull nutrients from the soil in order to grow, and those nutrients will run dry if they're not replenished. While conventional farmers often use synthetic fertilizers for this purpose, organic farmers rely on traditional methods that focus on keeping soil microbiomes happy, like crop rotation and using compost (decomposed plant matter that's naturally rich in nutrients).

Straying from traditional farming practices impacts the planet on many levels. For instance...

• Monocropping and not letting land lie fallow can lead to soil nutrient depletion and erosion, a factor in the infamous Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
• Fertilizer runoff pollutes waterways, leading to algae blooms, the suffocation of aquatic wildlife, and more.
• Pesticides can harm the pollinators needed to sustain agriculture.
• Genetically modified organisms can lead to resistant pests and loss of species biodiversity.

Organic farming equals no imbalances in the environment due to synthetic chemicals and genetic engineering. Organic gets back to the basics: Keep soil thriving for healthy, nutrient-rich plants now and for future generations.

Obviously whatever happens to the environment will also affect humankind, but on a more personal level, choosing organic will save people from a lot of health "maybes". Eating genetically modified foods that are sprayed with chemicals might not have a huge impact on someone's health over a lifetime...or it might. Having repeated exposure to pesticide residues and other chemicals may not push someone's toxic load past its breaking point...but in some people it can. The prevalence of serious, chronic diseases has risen since the industrialization of the food industry the past few decades, and its worth doing everything in one's power to decrease the amount of stressors on the body as much as possible.

The Traditional Chinese Medicine that we practice is all about getting the body aligned with nature, and eating naturally grown foods is one of the best ways to do that. That being said, organic certification takes money and effort, and some small farmers just don't have the resources for it.

Buying local is always best - produce that's shipped across the country will have to be picked before it's fully ripe, regardless of whether it's organic or not - and talking to local farmers is the best way to glean information. If a small blueberry stand is using seeds passed through generations and growing plants in the exact way that their family has been growing them for centuries, they're probably farming organically without the official label.

Organic farming isn't easy and organic foods are going to be more expensive because of that. Creating a grocery budget and planning meals in advance are two ways to commit to choosing healthier foods without feeling overwhelmed financially. Companies have noticed the popularity of organic foods and are producing more organic options; every dollar spent on organic products feeds the organic movement!  

U.S. Department of Agriculture (especially Factsheets and Standards)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

The Unhealthy Truth by Robyn O'Brien 

"GMO Foods: What You Need to Know" (Consumer Reports, Feb. 2015)

Environmental Working Group

This post was originally published in September of 2017 and was updated in November of 2025.