Does Organic Matter? Ask Elise.
Sometimes we learn the most from the most simple things. This is an excellent example from a little girl named Elise. (No, this is not me as a little girl…even though I looked just like her. Her understanding of food and nutrition is way more advanced than mine at her age).
Potato Project
She probably does not know any thing about Monsanto. My pipe dream is that she will never have to. If she and all of her friends act on what they have learned, then we have a small hope. That can become contagious…especially in the new frontier of the internet and even Facebook. We can’t seem to be able to depend on government or big agriculture to save us. The USDA approved GMO alfalfa, and that has been seen by some as the beginning of the end. I agree; some things seem out of our control.
But we learn some of the best life lessons from such simple ideas, right? Everyone knows Gandhi’s famous lines, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” Let’s all try to simplify our lives and thus our food systems. Let’s grow as much as we can ourselves, be as close to the source of our food as possible, and make sure that funky stuff is not sprayed on things, and this matters more on some food than others.
Here is a list of the 12 Things you should always buy organic: The Dirty Dozen
And since not everyone can afford organic everything, here is a list of the things that you can get away with: The Clean 15 (notice that sweet potatoes are actually on this list though, which is what little Elise used in her experiment)
The point here is not to become paranoid and freak out. That would not solve anything…and the little girl seemed to be ok?! So do what you can today. Be pro-active. Remember: we don’t have to be perfect, but if we all did a little bit more that would be a big change overall.
