"Organic Manifesto"
Americans today are more confused than ever about organic food. Is it more nutritious? What’s the difference between organic and natural? Isn’t it more important to eat “locally” produced food? Why are organic foods so expensive? Doesn’t the higher price make it elitist and therefore an unrealistic choice for working families? Is it possible to grow enough food to feed the world organically?
In ORGANIC MANIFESTO: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep us Safe, Maria Rodale—journalist, activist, and mother—cuts through the confusion and misinformation to provide an indispensable and highly readable look at why chemical-free farming unquestionably holds the key to better health for us and for the planet.
Through interviews with government officials, doctors, scientists, business leaders, and farmers coast-to-coast, Rodale connects the dots and gets to the heart of an issue that is much, much bigger than most of us even realize. Over the last 100 years, chemical companies have misled consumers into thinking that we cannot survive without GMOs or chemicals. “Artificial” is now seen as “normal,” “safe,” and “conventional.” The truth is that the chemicals in our food (which also wind up in our water supply) are poisoning our families. Cases of bacterial and viral infections in children are on the rise, asthma rates have skyrocketed, and diabetes and autism are both increasing at epidemic proportions, as are infertility and hormonal problems among both men and women—and so much more. A vast and growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the toxic substances we are using to grow chemically engineered foods are destroying us. In the end, this means that synthetic foods are costing us much more when you factor in health care costs and lost workdays.
In ORGANIC MANIFESTO: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep us Safe, Maria Rodale—journalist, activist, and mother—cuts through the confusion and misinformation to provide an indispensable and highly readable look at why chemical-free farming unquestionably holds the key to better health for us and for the planet.
Through interviews with government officials, doctors, scientists, business leaders, and farmers coast-to-coast, Rodale connects the dots and gets to the heart of an issue that is much, much bigger than most of us even realize. Over the last 100 years, chemical companies have misled consumers into thinking that we cannot survive without GMOs or chemicals. “Artificial” is now seen as “normal,” “safe,” and “conventional.” The truth is that the chemicals in our food (which also wind up in our water supply) are poisoning our families. Cases of bacterial and viral infections in children are on the rise, asthma rates have skyrocketed, and diabetes and autism are both increasing at epidemic proportions, as are infertility and hormonal problems among both men and women—and so much more. A vast and growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the toxic substances we are using to grow chemically engineered foods are destroying us. In the end, this means that synthetic foods are costing us much more when you factor in health care costs and lost workdays.