Americans, Demand Organic!

Americans, Demand Organic!
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

So I was dawdling about on Twitter, and I see a tweet from Mark Bittman about the "shocking" (his words) survey just out from Thompson Reuters and NPR Health about organic. What's so shocking about it? Fifty-eight percent of ALL Americans want organic food!!!!! OK, I'm not going to take credit, but I am going to say...YAY! Hip, hip, hooray!

What's especially great about the poll is that it shows that it's not just young people who prefer organic food. (Although the young are even more likely to--62 percent of people under the age of 35, given a choice, prefer to eat organic food.)

What I think is especially reassuring is that the preference for organic food is spread fairly equally across all income levels. So take that, all you people who think organic is too expensive or only for the elites: People at all income levels prefer organic food. People at all education levels, too. You don't need a college education to understand that chemical toxins are going to harm you and your children. In fact, 52.7 percent of people with a high school diploma or less of an education prefer organic foods.

What warms my little old heart is that people are finally understanding that the best reason to choose organic foods is to avoid exposure to the toxins in nonorganic food. That and supporting local farmers are the primary reasons that people say they choose organic foods. They also believe organic is better for the environment. Only 12.9 percent choose it because it tastes better. But everyone knows it does. Well, actually, according to this study there are 12.6 percent of Americans who think nonorganic foods taste better than organic. But I think that might be the 12.6 percent who have never really eaten organic food. They certainly haven't eaten my cooking!

I am hoping all my slogging about this past year traveling (not to mention airport adventures has made a small dent in raising this awareness. But I'm not looking for credit. I'm looking for the American Government to LISTEN TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE! In this environment in which every dollar matters, our health is worsening, and our environment is precariously teetering on collapse, stop wasting American tax dollars supporting, subsidizing, and encouraging the toxic chemical and GMO farming that are promoted by unethical companies who spread lies and poison around the world in order to line their own pockets. We've been ripped off and contaminated long enough.

Trust me, we are still not winning this war being waged against our bodies and our planet. But now we know there are enough people on our side to start to believe that winning is possible. Thank you, America!

For more from Maria Rodale, go to www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com.

Popular in the Community

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE