Eating healthy and eco is possible
No doubt that organic farming and overall sustainable production of healthy and quality food is becoming more relevant and not only in the media but also on the shelves of shops and supermarkets. Behind this boom is the growing ecological interest of people trying to live a healthy life.
They look after the quality of the food they eat and the way they habve been produced, stored or transported. But what exactly is organic farming? What are the benefits? When and why did it start? We are going to try to to answer these questions here, pointing out the benefits that this type of agriculture has on our well-being. A perfect example of ecological farming are the tigenuts which because of its nutritional properties may well have been called "the tuber of happiness".
Organic farming: Its principles
The first precedent of organic farming emerged in Germany around the year 30 of the twentieth century when a group of farmers perceived how the functions of an industrial-scale farming practices were harming their farmland and quality of products produced therein. The Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner wanted to address this problem in a series of conferences that laid the foundations of what was then called "biodynamic agriculture".
Somewhat later when the agronomists Eve Balfour and Albert Howard moved to India to implement European agricultural practices there, they realized that local constraints did not allow the adoption of the same systems. They noticed it was better to learn from nature and its cycles to produce food. Their two books "The Living Soil" and "An agricultural testament" are considered the foundational minutes of what today is organic farming.
What we mean by "organic agriculture"?
Experiences like these have been spreading around the world. What do we mean today when we speak of "organic farming"? In its brief definition, it is a system of agricultural production that seeks sustainable production of quality foods without the use of synthetic chemicals and genetically modified organisms. Thus to contribute to better health of agricultural land and the planet, respecting its natural cycles and biodiversity of ecosystems.
Organic agriculture: An alternative to industrial production
The techniques of industrial agriculture have led to lowering production costs and the possibility of having, at any time of year, a huge variety of fruits and vegetables that come from anywhere in the world. But even the less demanding consumer will have noticed that the price you pay is the flavor.
But thats not the biggest cost: The massive industrial production of food requires using tons of synthetic chemicals, CO2 emissions in transporting food around the world (with its impact on global warming) and the use of genetically modified organisms, whose impact in humans and the environment it is not well known yet.
Organic farming: More flavor and sustainability
The nearly non existing taste of many foods we eat is therefore a less disastrous consequence of an agricultural model that is proving unsustainable. Against this there is the organic farming commitment to environmental sustainability, production of closeness and nutritional and organoleptic quality of the food we eat.
