The following editor’s letter appeared in the January 2001 issue of Great Life magazine, and I thought it was worth sharing here:

If you think the problem with junk food is lack of nutritional value, you’re correct. But there’s another problem, one that few people really want to think about – it can be highly toxic.

The much-loved hamburger, fast-food style, can provide you with 90 to 95% of your exposure to some of the most noxious toxins man has been able to manufacture. How? We ingest most of our cancer-causing, immune-suppressing poisons through our food, specifically animal fat. So this is another, very good reason to stick to lean meat and eat fish. With poultry, most of the fat is in the skin, so it’s pretty simple to avoid.

How did we end up with all of these toxins? Pesticides (with about 2.5 million tons used last year) are a key source, and one that can be avoided with organic farming. The bigger, more complex picture is described very well in a recent report from the Worldwatch Institute, a non-profit research organization based in Washington, D.C. Why Poison Ourselves? A Precautionary Approach to Synthetic Chemicals identifies both the roots of the problem and logical solutions, such as much more organic farming. And it notes some fascinating statistics: In 1935, pests claimed about 30% of the harvest, whereas last year, with the strongest pesticides in history, the bugs’ share was up to 37%. (Online, [URL for Worldwatch given here] offers more information.)

Today, only 0.2% of U.S. Farmland is certified organic, and it needs to increase. Your understanding and use of all types of organic products can provide the impetus for that change to occur sooner rather than later – and it’s an easy way to make life around us a little better.

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The Lord is the strength of my life and my portion forever.