Eating Organic; Necessary or Hype?

For starters, what is organic food and can you get organic food in Nairobi? Organic food is food that has been grown without the use of any synthetic fertilizers, pesticides and chemicals. Organic livestock raised for meat, eggs, and dairy products must have access to the outdoors and be given organic feed. They may not be given antibiotics, growth hormones, or any animal by-products. There is now a lot of access to organic food in Nairobi.

Several decades ago, in Africa we all ate organic without even knowing it. It wasn’t until the 60’s that international seed companies began to introduce their seeds, fertilizers and pesticides into our farms. Back then unfortunately, we were unable to foresee some of the negative, far reaching effects of modern day conventional farming. As a result several agricultural zones around Kenya now have very depleted soils from the overuse of synthetic fertilizers. Sadly it continues to be such a vicious cycle, where farmers need more and more pesticides and fertilizers to produce good yields. As such, it has become increasingly difficult to get organic food in Nairobi at the regular markets and supermarkets.

But why is organic better?

I must begin by saying LOUD and CLEAR that all fresh produce (organic or not) is good for you. The benefits of consuming even non-organic fruit and veg. still outweigh the risks. That said, the reasons why organic is better are as follows;

1. The chemicals in synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are known carcinogens and neurotoxins. This is especially important to note for young children who naturally have weaker immune systems. Some children begin to react to these simply by having cough and flu-like symptoms that don’t go away.

2. Organic food is higher in nutrients. Non organic produce has technically gone through an unnatural growth process and as a result does not produce as high nutritive value as organic produce. You can think of it this way – a tomato grown under harsh conditions (without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides) develops a natural resistance that results in a higher nutritional value.

3. Organic is the way to go to keep our hormones in check. Life for women and men is a beautiful and delicate balance of hormones. Hormones are everything- they influence how we feel, how we behave and also how our bodies combat diseases. Synthetic pesticides and fertilizers wreak havoc on our hormones and are known as “endocrine disruptors.” By affecting our hormones, they disrupt other important body systems. Think PCOS, infertility, breast and ovarian cancers etc.

4. Organic farming is better for the environment. Simply put, less chemicals in our soils, means less chemicals in our plant foods, less chemicals in our water supply and less chemicals in our animal foods. Harmful chemicals manage to travel all the way up through the food chain and as a result everything including the environment gets contaminated.

The Dirty Dozen and Clean 15

The Environment Working Group, a non-partisan international organisation, creates an awesome list each year of the most pesticide contaminated foods (the dirty dozen) and the least contaminated foods (the clean 15). This list also applies to organic food in Nairobi and Kenya at large.

Below are the dirty dozen. Where possible it is advisable to buy these foods organic as their conventional counterparts test very highly for pesticide contamination.

The clean 15 is produce that is least contaminated by pesticides. It is generally ok to buy this produce non-organic.

Cost of Organic

It is important to mention that organic food in Nairobi is often slightly more expensive than regular produce and this is because it takes longer to grow, produces fewer yields per acreage and ultimately costs more to produce. But, the million dollar question is whether you would rather spend more at the market or at the doctor’s office!

There are alot of places to get organic food in Nairobi, you can check them out here:

https://www.koan.co.ke/where-to-get-your-organic-fix/