All About Organics

Americans are increasingly seeking “clean” foods that are free from artificial colors, flavors and preservatives. But although consumers who want to avoid toxic pesticides and antibiotics know to look for foods that are certified organic, many don’t know that federal rules also dramatically limit the use of synthetic substances in packaged organic foods like cereals, snacks and dressings.

You know that switching to organic and pasture-based agriculture is what we need to do to feed the world and cool the planet—because healthy soil can both provide abundant food, and also draw down and sequester carbon.

But do your members of Congress know this?

And if they do, are they doing anything to level the playing field for farmers who grow nutrient-rich food in ways that protect, not harm, the environment? So that those farmers stand a chance of making a decent living in a market dominated by industrial food producers?

According to polls, the No. 1 reason people choose organic food is to avoid pesticide exposure.1 Not only do these chemicals threaten the environment, but they also pose a very clear and direct risk to human health. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, has made headlines because it's the most used agricultural chemical in history it has been identified it as a probable human carcinogen.

For years, "sustainable" has been the buzzword in conversations about agriculture. If farmers and ranchers could slow or stop further damage to land and water, the thinking went, that was good enough. I thought that way too, until I started writing my new book, "One Size Fits None: A Farm Girl's Search for the Promise of Regenerative Agriculture."