The Difference Between Organic Food and Traditional Food

When you’re faced with a choice between traditional food and food labeled as “organic”, making the decision can seem impossible. The two foods may look and feel the same, but there are drastic differences in the methods used to grow and prepare both foods for consumption. For example, farmers who grow fruits and vegetables traditionally often use fertilizers made from harsh chemicals to make the plants grow more quickly, thus creating more produce in a shorter amount of time. Traditional produce also typically contains traces of potentially harmful, chemically-based insecticides. Farmers who choose to grow their produce organically, however, use natural fertilizers such as manure to grow their plants, and employ natural methods of keeping insects at bay, such as mating disruption. Farmers who produce animal products using traditional methods feed their animals man-made grain feed, and inject growth hormones and antibiotics into their animals that cause them to grow faster without contracting diseases. These antibiotics and hormones in traditional meat and dairy can destroy healthy bacteria and cause hormonal changes in our own bodies. Farmers who produce organic animal products feed their animals a balanced diet and allow them to graze outdoors, which enables natural growth and disease prevention.