Consumer Benefits

(i) Nutrition The nutritional value of food is largely a function of its vitamin and mineral content. In this regard, organically grown food is dramatically superior in mineral content to that grown by modern conventional methods. Because it fosters the life of the soil organic farming reC!psthe benefits soil life offers in greatly facilitated plant access to soil nutrients. Healthy plants mean healthy people, and such better nourished plants provide better nourishment to people and animals alike.

(Ii) Poison-free and tasty A major benefit to consumers of organic food is that it is free of contamination with health harming chemicals such as pesticides, fungicides and herbi­cides. Organically grown food tastes better than that conven­tionally grown. The tastiness of fruit and vegetables is directly related to its sugar content, which in turn is a function of the quality of nutrition that the plant itself has enjoyed.

This quality of fruit and vegetable can be empirically measured by subjecting its juice to Brix analysis, which is a measure of its specific gravity (density). The Brix score is widely used in testing fruit and vegetables for their quality prior to export.

(iii) Food Keeps longer organically grown plants are nourished naturally, rendering the structural and metabolic integrity of their cellular structure superior to those convention­ally grown. As a result, organically grown foods can be stored longer and do not show the latter's susceptibility to rapid mold and rotting.

Disadvantages

Productivity Proponents of industrialised agriculture point to its superior productivity. In the short term, this yield is possible by expending massive inputs of chemicals and ma­chinery, working over bland fields of a single crop (monocul­ture). However, over the longer time frame, productivity advan­tages dwindle.

Industrialised agriculture thrashes the land, and diminishes its soil life to the point where it can no longer function to convert available organic matter into soil fertility. Productivity begins to wane, and attempts to bolster it with increasing chemical inputs (common advice from farm consultants) have a similar effect to flogging a dead horse. Because it relies on living soil to build fertility, the benefits of organic farming for soil life are fundamental to its methods.

Organic farming benefits food production without destroy­ing our environmental resources, ensuring sustainability for not only the current but also future generations.

Advances in Crop Science and Technology Journal is a peer-reviewed, Open Access journal that publishes original research articles, review articles, case studies, case reports, and editorials/short communications with major emphasis on area of plant, agriculture and particularly Crop Sciences.

Submit your manuscripts online to publish with us. For further information or assistance in this regard E-mail your queries at cropscience@escientificjournals.com

Regards

Glory Har

Managing Editor

Email: cropscience@escientificjournals.com

Whatsapp: +3225889658