Organics

• The latest hot topic — the organic advantage
• USDA Organic Standards
• Understanding organic labels
• PCC is a certified organic retailer
• Ten Reasons to buy organic
• Who owns what? — Organic Industry Structure (PDF)
• Links and articles

Ten reasons to buy organic

PCC Natural Markets has a long history in supporting organically grown foods through buying and selling organics, our close relationship with our farmers, and through education and preservation efforts such as the PCC Farmland Trust.

1. Organic Foods Taste Better
   Many chefs use organic foods in their recipes because they taste better. Organic farming nourishes the soil, which nourishes the plant, and ultimately our bodies. In contrast, industrial farming creates produce for uniformity, ease of shipping, and cosmetic appearance, not flavor.
2. Protect Future Generations
   The average child receives four times more exposure than an adult to at least eight widely used cancer-causing pesticides in food. The food choices you make now will impact your child's health in the future.
3. Prevent Soil Erosion
   Healthy, nutrient-rich topsoil is the foundation of organic farming and the farmer's greatest ally. In conventional farming, soil is merely used to hold plants up so they can be chemically fertilized. Conventional American farms are suffering from the worst topsoil erosion in history.
4. Protect Water Quality
   The EPA estimates pesticides (some cancer causing) contaminate the groundwater in 38 states, polluting the primary source of drinking water for more than 50% of the country's population. Organic practices eliminate polluting chemicals and nitrogen leaching.
5. Save Energy
   Conventional farming uses more petroleum than any other single industry (more than 12% of the nation's energy supply). Organic farming relies mainly on labor-intensive practices such as hand weeding, using green manures and crop covers rather than synthetic fertilizers to build up soil.
6. Keep Chemicals Off Your Plate
   EPA considers that 60% of all herbicides, 90% of all fungicides and 30% of all insecticides are carcinogenic. Pesticides are designed to kill living organisms, and can harm humans. In addition to cancer, pesticides are implicated in birth defects, nerve damage, and genetic mutation.
7. Protect Farm Worker Health
   While pesticides may pose health risks to you, the risks are far greater for field workers. According to a National Cancer Institute study, farmers exposed to herbicides had a six-times greater risk than non- farmers of contracting cancer. Field workers suffer the highest rates of occupational illness in California.
8. Help Small Farmers
   It's estimated that the United States has lost more than 650,000 family farms in the past decade. The USDA predicts that by the year 2000, half of the U.S. farm production will come from only one percent of farms. Value-added premium pricing enables many small family farms to thrive.
9. Support a True Economy
   While organic foods might seem more expensive, conventional food prices do not reflect hidden costs borne by taxpayers in federal subsidies. Other hidden costs include pesticide regulation and testing, hazardous waste disposal and clean-up, and environmental damage.
10. Promote Biodiversity
    Mono-cropping is the practice of planting large plots of land with the same crop year after year. The lack of natural diversity (including crop rotation and heirloom varieties) leaves the soil depleted of natural minerals and nutrients. This system relies more on pesticides while creating insects genetically resistant to certain pesticides.