Without getting myself all knotted up about it, I try to buy organic and toxin-free as much as possible. I'm getting better at it all the time and slowly more and more items in my home ... food and non-food ... are safe ... or safer. This article (linked above) outlines some good reasons to go organic. I'll put my reasons in my own words here.
1. Because it's better for me. Now that I've had cancer and endured cancer treatments, which have put my body through the wringer, I need to optimize my health and immune system. It's important that I reduce the toxins that may have been at least partially responsible for my getting cancer in the first place. The estrogen mimicking "stuff" in the meat and dairy products is absorbed in our bodies. Maybe that contributed to my estrogen-fed tumour. If you tell yourself "there isn't actually more cancer, it's just being diagnosed more frequently", you're wrong. There is more cancer. Period. Why?
2. To support organic producers. This might not be a popular notion in the farming community I grew up on, but my feeling is that if more and more people refuse to buy foods and materials produced from crops that have been chemically treated or from genetically modified seed (hello, Monsanto, you big bully - I'm talkin' 'bout you here), then farmers would be forced to find chemical free ways of growing crops. And this is better for everyone, including farm families. Farmers would stop feeding drugs and chemicals to livestock, too, if consumers were to insist on buying organic animal products from producers who treat their animals humanely. I always thought that growing up on a farm gave me a health advantage. Boy, was I wrong. It turns out that exposure to farm chemicals is not good for growing bodies. I can't say that's why I got cancer but ... maybe ... it was a contributing factor.
3. Because I care about our our environment, our water, air, soil, and living things, including us. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that farm chemicals will eventually leach into our water. Everyone knows how critical safe water is. Chemicals carry through the air and are absorbed into our soil. Insects, birds, critters end up with chemicals in them, probably altering their cells, too. And we all know how the "food chain" works.
Am I naive to think we'd all be better off if we stopped using chemicals the way we do ... chemicals that are untested and yet approved for use? Am I jaded to believe that chemical companies only think about money and not about health and wellness?
It's late and I'm meandering. It's just such a huge topic. At a later date, I might come back here and add some of the many links I've collected on the topic.
But for now, good night.
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you are totally right! I just read about all the toxins in plastic toys and clothes/shoes that small children chew on and how harmful that is. I'm telling you, when and if I get grandchildren they are going to have hand made plastic and paint free toys.
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