With tomatoes shipped two thousand miles from South America, meat pumped full of steroids and chemicals, and plastic cutlery exuding toxins throughout their shelf life, the products found in supermarkets are some of the worst from an environmental perspective. They have large carbon footprints, huge toxic outputs, and usually come from farms that stifle ecological diversity. All of those qualities upset green-minded individuals, but they should be equally unattractive to health-minded individuals. It’s no coincidence that green friendly products are more nutritious and filling; natural and organic food is simply what nature intended.
The documentary Food, Inc. revealed the political power food corporations have on our country. It bemoaned how few studies have been done on cloned meat and genetically modified vegetables because of rich lobbyists. Unfortunately, that’s true, but the little research that has occurred all reveals dire health consequences. Since genetically modified organisms entered the supermarket, childhood diabetes has jumped 90%, and only in the countries that allow GMOs. In countries that place no restrictions on steroids and hormones in meat, precocious puberty runs rampant. Green friendly products, though, don’t have the same consequences.
For millennia, people have harvested food in season, fertilized naturally, and killed animals that roamed and ate as freely. The natural world is brutal and tumultuous but also pure. A larger tomato brings in a higher profit, but its constitution is weaker than a small, organic fruit. The more chemicals we add to our diets, more diluted nutrition we intake, and more pesticides we spray on our foods has an effect on our bodies. Green friendly products are good for our planet, but they’re just as good for our bodies.
