Organic Manifesto How Organic Food Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe

by Rodale, Maria; Schlosser, Eric

• ISBN13: 9781609611361
• ISBN10: 1609611365
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-01
• Publisher: Rodale Books

Summary

Drawing on findings from leading health researchers as well as conversations with both chemical and organic farmers from coast to coast, Maria Rodale irrefutably outlines the unacceptably high cost of chemical farming on our health and our environment. She traces the genesis of chemical farming and the rise of the immense companies that profit from it, bringing to light the government's role in allowing such practices to flourish. She further explains that modern organic farming would not only help reverse climate change by reducing harmful carbon emissions and soil depletion, but would also improve the quality of the food we eat, reduce diseases from asthma to cancer, and ensure a better quality of life in farming communities nationwide. For every parent wondering how best to safeguard the health and safety of her children; for every environmentalist in search of a solution to the worsening crisis that afflicts our land, air, and waters; for every shopper who questions whether it is worth it to pay more for organic, Maria Rodale offers straightforward answers and a single, definitive course of action: We must demand organic now.

Author Biography

Maria Rodale is a third-generation advocate for organic farming and the CEO and chairman of Rodale Inc. She is the author of three books and has won numerous awards, including the National Audubon Society's Rachel Carson Award in 2004. She lives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. You can read more about her at her blog, Maria's Farm Country Kitchen (mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com).

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Introduction	p. xiii
The Great Chemical Experiment (In Which We Are All Guinea Pigs)
We Have Poisoned Our Soil, Our Water, and Our Air	p. 3
We Have Poisoned Ourselves and Our Children	p. 17
The Tortuous Journey to Our Extinction
Chemical Farming Today	p. 43
The Birth of Our Chemical Addiction	p. 65
How Industry and the Government Have Betrayed Us	p. 88
The Age of Healing
Organic Farming Today	p. 141
The Truth about Modern Organic Farming	p. 155
Five Solutions That Might Save Us	p. 184
Epilogue	p. 195
Acknowledgments	p. 202
Notes	p. 207
Index	p. 217
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