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By Melody Meyer
April 22nd, 1970 was the day the Earth took center stage as twenty million people took to the streets in defense of the natural world. The rally cry was for clean air, water and soil, a society that protected the wondrously biodiverse planet we call home. Forty-eight years later, the earth is a cleaner albeit hotter orb and organic farmers play a crucial role in protecting the planet's future.
It is no small coincidence that in the years following that first Earth Day, organic agriculture took root in many a young agrarian mind. Farmers and would-be gardeners realized that the reliance on an ever increasing array of toxic inputs was endangering our health and our planet for many generations to come.
Organic methods represented a different path, one that worked in harmony with nature and built up rather than tore down the natural order. Organic producers are the stewards of the earth with every compost pile, cover crop and fertile soil.
Some say agriculture may have been the original fall from grace: the day we picked up a tool and cut into the earth and planted a seed. We burned grasslands, felled trees and domesticated beasts for our bidding. Civilizations flourished, populations boomed, and our sophisticated means to conquer nature knew no bounds.
Evolving technologies, pesticides, synthetic nitrates and the industrialization of agriculture ushered in the Green Revolution. It promised exponential yields to feed a growing population. The revolution came at great expense to human health and the environment. Organic farming offers the promise to restore and reverse these errant trends.
Organic producers protect human health with every harvest.
With the rise of modern industrialized agriculture, few people are now untouched by pesticide exposure. Every day we are exposed through our food, water, air, and direct contact. This daily onslaught has been linked to many ills.
Farm worker and rural communities benefit when an organic farmer plants his seed. No dangerous chemicals drift onto playgrounds, schools and churches.
The waters run pure with organic nutrients free from synthetic nitrates. The air is a little sweeter from the alyssum that hedges the organic field attracting honeybees and beneficial insects.
Consumers can rest assured their exposure to toxic inputs has been diminished. With each bite of organic strawberries, Gala apple or Crimson Seedless grape, parents can be confident there are no concentrates of toxic pesticides.
Celery, cherries, Spinach and potatoes produced with sound organic practices are free of carcinogens, hormone disruptors and neurotoxins. They are a delight on the palate and safe for our children.
Organic growers protect the environment and the entire ecological system on which food production depends. Pesticides can persist in the environment for decades, contaminating surrounding soils and water sources, causing loss of biodiversity and destroying beneficial insect populations that act as natural enemies of pests.
Organic producers build rich vibrant soils that are known to sequester carbon from the atmosphere mitigating climate change.
Agriculture has a significant place in protecting us from the calamity of climate change and egregious environmental degradation. Intrepid organic producers are taking us one step closer to a healthier world with each harvest.
Protecting our health and the environment are the themes we celebrate on Earth Day. An organic farmer lives and breathes them every day.
Let us celebrate organic producers this Earth Day!
