Unfortunately, today we use more pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and petrochemicals in our crops than any other culture since the beginning of civilization. In the name of scientific advancement in the field of agriculture, we have created 75,000 synthetic chemicals with the rate of pesticide use increasing every year. These pesticides are designed to be toxic and kill all sorts of things, like fungus, insects, and bacteria whenever they are used. Unfortunately, only 2% of them serve their intended purposes. The rest get absorbed in the soil, water, air, and even the plants themselves. Some estimate that 75,000,000 birds die of pesticide poisoning every year. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) admits that they have reliable information on the toxicity levels of only 43% of all of the synthetic chemicals being used daily on crops!
Furthermore, the more we submit to this practice, the more companies like Monsanto can pressure farmers into using pesticides, which can be just as bad for farmers' health - or even worse - than it is for consumers.
Produce full of pesticides and petrochemicals will have little taste compared to an produce raised on real soil. Our taste buds signal alarm throughout our bodies when the fruits or vegetables we are eat taste like cardboard. We have all heard our grandparents lament the loss of taste in certain vegetables, for example tomatoes. Just a couple of decades ago people would throw tomatoes at performers they didn't like because they would explode in a rainbow of juice, seeds, and flesh. Now if you were to throw a tomato at someone you might give them a concussion because our modern tomatoes are hard as rocks even when they are overripe.
Even when it comes to the balance of actual nutrients, conventional foods are found wanting. Our bodies require over 60 vitamins and minerals. Often-times, farmers are encouraged by corporations like Monsanto to use only three fertilizers in their soil: nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium. These are chosen for they're ability to make produce colorful, durable, and fast-growing, but as a consequence the produce lacks the variety and balance of nutrients found in natural conditions that is so healthy for human beings.
If you are interested in finding out more information about the subject of "chemical laden food", I highly recommend Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma". It is a chilling report about the state of our farmers, our land, and our food. Here is a great excerpt from it:
The better for what? question about my organic meal can of course be answered in a much less selfish way: Is it better for the environment? Better for the farmers who grew it? Better for the public health? For the taxpayer? The answer to all three questions is an almost (unqualified) yes. To grow plants and animals that made up my meal, no pesticides found their way into the farmer's bloodstream, no nitrogen runoff or growth hormones seeped into watershed, no soils were poisoned, no antibiotics were squandered, no subsidy checks were written. If the high price of my all-organic meal is weighed against the comparatively low price it exacted from the larger world, as it should be, it begins to look, at least in karmic terms, like a real bargain.
- Michael Pollan, "The Omnivore's Dilemma", Page 182
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