Did you see the organic farmer on Jeopardy?

jeopardy kid by tinrey, on Flickr

Jeopardy is one of the few television shows we watch regularly. We watch it twice a day, as a family. There was an organic farmer as a recent champion. Please forgive me if I can’t remember if the contestant was on the current or rerun episode we watched. During the interview portion of the show, Alex Trebek asked, “Are organics really more nutritious?” The contestant answered, “It depends on the study.”

I turned to hubby and said, “Conventional is SO much more nutritious! I can think of at least two things conventional has that organic doesn’t—pesticides and herbicides! Atrazine is edible, right? That’s why they put it on our food?”

Alex asked the wrong question.

Research is controlled like the fox watching the henhouse. Subsidies make sure the money flows toward the least nutritious foods. Monocropped GMOs guarantee the most inputs applied in the greatest quantity over the largest possible acreage. Nutrition may be a personal choice, but the rate at which we are losing topsoil and fouling our waterways is shocking.

I want to encourage you to become a personal activist this year. You don’t need to join a group, send money, hold a picket sign, or even write a single letter (although all those things are beneficial if you have the time, finances and passion.) Just make a personal choice.

Choose local. Choose organic. Choose biodynamic. Really think your way through your next shopping trip instead of tossing the same stuff as always in your cart. Leave the kids home just this once and read the labels. Find a blog to follow (like Civil Eats or La Vida Locovore) where you can get food news. Read a book, listen to a podcast. Do something to educate yourself about the issues, then decide on an action to take and take it. Change just one thing.

You might find change addicting in a good way!