The 10 coolest ways your support helps the planet.

My granddad had a mixed farm and farmed in a way that did not kill the bees, did not result in 75% of the insect population being destroyed, did not require factory farming. Did not require that scientists modify the genetic make-up of plants to make them more resistant to chemicals, did not insist on spraying the ground before every crop was planted. He worked with nature and that is the essence of organic agriculture.

So without further ado here are the 10 coolest ways your support for organic food helps the planet:

1. You are keeping chemicals out of our countryside.
   1. Organic agriculture prohibits the use of synthetic pesticides.
      1. Pesticides and herbicides are designed to kill something. We were told neonicotinoids were safe for the bees and now we are seeing the massive damage they have done.
   2. Organic agriculture uses natural fertilisers that are less likely to be washed into our rivers.

2. You are protecting biodiversity.
   1. There are so many more birds on organic farms.
   2. There are so many more trees and flowers.
   3. There so many more insects and bees.

3. You are minimising the amount of waste packaging you produce. We collect our boxes and reuse them, we reuse the paper bags.
   1. We collect egg boxes and bring them back to John the egg man.

4. You are minimising the amount of plastic you consume, and therefore the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean and on the side of our roads. We are now trialling compostable plastic bags and you will get them with any farm packed produce.  

5. You are reducing your carbon footprint in so many ways
   1. Our seasonal boxes are 70% farm or Irish produce on average through the year.
   2. We have our own solar panels to generate our electricity, so the work that is required to put your box on the back of a van is powered by the sun!
   3. We have planted trees all over the farm (nearly 4000 in total), which helps offset our carbon emission from our vans.
   4. We deliver in a highly efficient and organised route, so it saves single trips to the supermarket.
   5. We use harvested rainwater to water our tunnels.

6. You are supporting loads of other smaller Irish indigenous farms and business
   1. We buy from several other small farms in Ireland.
   2. If we don’t have it, we buy it as local as possible.
   3. We support smaller grocery businesses.
   4. We get our eggs from down the road from John.

7. You are supporting less food waste.
   1. Food waste is a massive issue, exacerbated by long supply chains and the supermarket supply model.
   2. We use our food waste, as in we actually eat it. If not my mum brings it to charities in Galway. Failing that we compost it or send it for food to the hens that produce the eggs. A closed system.

8. You are sending a strong message to big business that there is a better way to do things.
   1. Our food is so important, what we produce and how we produce it shapes our world. By spending your money on organic food you change retail behaviour.

9. You are keeping GMOs out of our ecosystem.
   1. The mainstay of GMOs is to allow more intensive farming with higher doses of herbicides. This is the most prevalent use of GMOs. Production of GMO plants and herbicides is a massive profit driven industry that supports big business and a way of farming that is killing our planet.

10. Finally, “Conscious consumption” the very act of thinking about a change in the way you source your food you have started the journey to a better planet. That awareness is infectious.