Go Organic

I wonder where you celebrated your Xmas and New Year holiday. Those of us that went to the village proper- (village get level) enjoyed. My friends from the South- South and the East were not so lucky. They ate with their ears close to the walls, I don't blame them, and the fear of kidnappers is the beginning of wisdom.

Anyhow sha, I enjoyed oh, imagine a meal of pounded yam and vegetable soup, topped with fresh palm wine. No deadline to meet for a few days, it was fun. My cousin from the States was around for her usual annual Xmas holiday with us, in the course of our discussion, after eating plenty fresh food and fruits; she wondered why we are not making money from organic food export in Nigeria. "You guys based in the cities eat horrible cheap foods that are more expensive instead of eating organic food".

What is organic sef, my sister asked her. It is when you do farming without adding all sorts of poison that you call fertilizer, like the naturally grown scent leaf, pepper and various vegetables at the backyard of my parent's house she answered.

Curiously, I checked what organic is all about, the word, I discovered, was coined by Lord Northbourne in 1939 in his book "Look to the land" precisely, in 1940 to describe a holistic ecologically- balanced approach to farming- in contrast to what he called chemical farming which relied on "imported fertility".

Back to the village, those of us who live there have always eaten organic; no wonder life expectancy is high compared to the city. Isn't it an irony that the rich in the city eat junk and die early while the poor in the village eat organic but live longer? You are what you eat. Outside Nigeria, organic farming is a regulated industry, distinct from private gardening. Initially it used to be available in small stores or what is called farmer's market, but now the worldwide organic food market is growing rapidly far ahead of the rest of the food industry, in both developed and developing countries.

In case you want to add eating organic food to your New Year resolution, let me share an idea. I recently stumbled on a report on the seven foods that experts won't eat and the solutions to them.

The experts will never go near canned tomatoes, according to Fredrick Vom Saal, PhD, an endocrinologist at the University of Missouri who studies bisphenol. The linings of tin-cans contain bisphenol-A, this is a synthetic estrogen that has been linked to ailments ranging from reproductive problems to heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Unfortunately, acidity (a prominent characteristic of tomatoes) causes BPA to leach into your food therefore contaminating your food with the substance. Studies show that the BPA in most people's body exceeds the amount that suppresses sperm production or causes emotional chromosomal damage to the eggs of animals. "You can get 50 mcg of BPA per liter out of a tomatoes can, and that's a level that is going to impact people, particularly the young. Solution, choose tomatoes in glass bottles (which do not have resin) or eat them fresh.

Corn fed beef is the number two on our list, we all know that cattle evolved to eat grass and not grains, unfortunately farmers today feed their animals corn and soybeans to fatten up the animals for slaughter, USDA researchers from Clemson University have discovered that corn-feed is higher in beta- carotene, vitamin E, omega-3s, conjugated linoleic acid(CLA), calcium, magnesium, and potassium; lower in inflammatory omega-6s; and lower in saturated fats that have been linked to heart disease. So, buy and eat grass fed beef.

Thirdly, don't microwave your pop corn, microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize and migrate to your popcorn. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Solution, pop your popcorn the old-fashioned way.

If you are based in America please don't eat non organic potatoes, potatoes growers says point blank according to report that they would never eat the potatoes that they sell, they have separate plots where they grow the potatoes that they eat without the chemical, the reason being that, the potatoes are treated with fungicides during growing seasons, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting, if you are in doubt, "Try this experiment: buy a conventional potato in a store and try to get it to sprout.