Eco-farming at Bloodwood Farm NSW, Laguna
Hi everyone,
I eat a few organic things and some inorganic produce. And how I choose depends on the type and ingredients.
It seems so hard with food these days, so expensive and also what choice to make, so I am going to let you know what I take into consideration.
I like to point this out:
Just because something is organic, doesn’t mean it’s good!! It can still have bad ingredients, just delivered organically. And one example I will give is soy, which is so controversial, good for some and bad for others. And also it messes with your hormones and it is in everything, such as soy or soy lecithin because it’s cheap. And if you have any health issues, try to stay away from soy!!! And even if you don’t, I would try to stay away from bread and cakes with soy at least. Soy doesn’t need to be there.
And another good example is alcohol, which as added to skincare, delivers organically, but is still bad for you, as it will disrupt your skin in the future. And it is hidden under many names.
The research is clear: Alcohol harms your skin’s protective surface and depletes vital substances needed for healthy skin. To put it simply, it’s pro-ageing. So if you want to age faster choose skincare that contains alcohol. Cleopatra skincare is 100% alcohol-free!!
When it comes to fruit and vegetables, we have to look at each type. Some are like sponges and absorb all the chemicals, and one of them is lettuce (excellent blog by Tashi I recommend to read!!), others are berries, you DO NOT want to eat the chemicals in them, they absorb everything. Then there are the root vegetables and herbs, also want to eat organic. Also, celery, apples, broccoli, peaches, cherries, kale, spinach, capsicum and grapes are a sponge for herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers etc.
What you don’t need to eat organic is bananas, avocados, pineapple, mango, sweat peas and melons including watermelon, grapefruit and eggplant, as they don’t seem to collect bad chemicals on the inside as berries and apples do. Also, note that you can see that most of these have thick skins which absorb the chemicals instead of the inside.
At Bloodwood everyone has to earn their food, turkey has to turn the compost to get rewarded ;):)
So what is the difference and benefits:
In organic and bio farming, the nitrogen present in composted soil is released slowly and therefore plants grow at a normal rate, with their nutrients in balance. Vegetables fertilised with conventional fertilisers grow very rapidly and allocate less energy to develop nutrients, which means that they are not as beneficial for you since they don’t have many nutrients.
It was already in a court of law that Round-up courses cancer!!! There were already a few big payouts. The government knows. It is an extra burden for organic farmers the need extra certificates and costs. In my opinion, it should be the other way around, it is the bad chemicals that should be taxed as they harm our health and put an extra burden on the healthcare system!
Did you ever wonder why there are so many cancers and autoimmune, and other health issues???
Tools of the trade at Bloodwood Organic farm, it is physically hard work and it is good for you!!!
Chemicals used in non-organic farming:
Round UP (herbicide)
Courses cancer in humans and animals, including your dogs and cats!!!
Hundreds of users of Roundup here are preparing legal cases against chemical giant Monsanto, the manufacturer of the weed killer. Their cases add to the already 17,000 cases launched in the United States.
In August last year, a jury determined exposure to the chemical had caused Johnson’s cancer and awarded him US$289 million in compensation, later reduced to $78 million.
A Melbourne gardener has launched legal action against agribusiness Monsanto.
Michael Ogliarolo, 54, used Roundup for over 18 years in his work as a landscape gardener and was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2011.
This is the first Australian case to link cancer with glyphosate, the active ingredient in the weed killer Roundup.
The lawsuit coincides with several Melbourne and Sydney councils considering a ban on Roundup and other glyphosate products. https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/gp-opinion/exploring-the-issue-of-roundup-and-cancer-risk
Pesticides
12 pesticides that are banned elsewhere but still used in Australia!!!
Australia continues to allow the use of pesticides that the European Union has banned – and in some cases the United States – because they harm human health or cause significant environmental damage. This includes the highly poisonous chemical paraquat, which has been linked to Parkinson’s disease, and the common herbicide atrazine, which interferes with reproduction and may cause cancer. 12 of the most toxic pesticides are still being used on Australian food crops and animals.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2022/sep/27/12-pesticides
From another article: Over 80 pesticides used in Australia are banned in other countries.
This includes 17 pesticides that have the potential to cause cancer, 48 that are potential hormone disrupters, and 30 that are classified as either extremely dangerous or highly hazardous by the World Health Organisation. These pesticides are used on foods we consume every day- fruits, vegetables, grains and more.
https://www.theorganicplace.com.au/did-you-know-the-truth-about-pesticides-and-more/
But this is what the Victorian government says:
The levels of pesticide residue in fruits and vegetables have been closely monitored in Australia for the past 30 years. For most pesticides, a minimum time between spraying and harvesting of produce is set to ensure safe food. Levels of chemical residues in Australia are consistently found to be very low and well within safe limits.
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health
Do you trust the government with your health??? I don’t!!
Fungicides
The fungicides are responsible for residue problems, resistance development in pathogens and different health hazards to human beings and other living organisms.
Modern fungicides that are sprayed on fruit and vegetables have come under fresh scrutiny after scientists found they caused similar genetic changes in mouse neurons to those seen in autism and Alzheimer’s disease.
Exposure to Fungicides Can Increase the Toxicity of Certain Insecticides as well!!
They also kill our beloved bees we cannot live without, if bees were to perish, so would life as we know it, and therefore us!! Agricultural fungicides are ‘bad news for neurons’, study suggests
A few fungicides, such as captan and mancozeb (e.g., Captan, Manzate), have insecticidal properties and can kill bees on contact. Other fungicides harm bees in more subtle ways. These sublethal effects—including changes in development, behaviour, immune health, or reproduction—can negatively impact bee populations by reducing long-term survival and population size. Exposure to fungicides may make bees more susceptible to harmful pathogens and diseases
Bees exposed to fungicides directly or through their food (contaminated pollen and nectar) can experience a variety of sublethal effects, which may reduce their ability to forage and reproduce. For example, dietary exposure to chlorothalonil (e.g., Bravo, Echo) can reduce honey bee (Apis mellifera) larval survival and decrease the number of offspring produced by bumble bee (Bombus spp.) colonies (Zhu et al. 2014, Bernauer et al. 2015). A mix of pyraclostrobin and boscalid (e.g., Pristine) commonly applied during bloom in some crops has been found to reduce honey bee forager survival and queen production, increase virus loads in honey bee colonies, and impair nest recognition by managed solitary bees (Fisher et al. 2017; DeGrandi-Hoffman et al. 2013, 2015; Artz & Pitts-Singer, 2015).
Reference and Recommended read:
https://xerces.org/sites/default/files/2019-09/Fungicide_Regular_Factsheet_Final_Web.pdf
I hope you learned something you didn’t know before,
I love learning this stuff myself!!
Have a great day everyone!!
Miroslava xo