First, Organic Living to me means to live a lifestyle that makes a positive impact on the earth, the environment, and with the people who live here. I fully support family values and community support.
Make as Little Impact on the Environment as Possible. This goes along with the basic premise of recycling, "reduce and reuse". Should I just throw all these plastic bags in the trash because it's easy, or should I make a place in my home to collect them, then take them to the recycling center once a month? Is there an alternative to using poison to keep nasty pests out of my home and away from my body? Can I plan my errands so that I only burn fuel one time rather than multiple times during the day/week?
Food Should Nourish Body and Spirit. All too often, we put food in our mouth just because we think we want it, or because everyone else is doing it. When you look at the impact food has on our lives, you see that we use food to nourish and to celebrate. Great traditions are developed around food and the preparation of specific dishes. As often as possible, I do choose to eat organic food, and I do this for a lot of reasons. The most obvious is that I prefer not to ingest toxins when I eat. I once had a very bad reaction to eating a nectarine...it put me in the hospital. I've avoided eating raw nectarines (and plums and peaches) ever since because I was afraid I had developed an anaphylactic reaction to the fruit. I have since come to believe that my reaction was not to the fruit, but to the pesticides that were used in its growing process. I still avoid eating those in the raw state, anaphylaxis is life threatening after all, but I have changed what I put in my mouth on a regular basis.
