While organic gardening makes you feel good about what you are doing in your own backyard, commitment to these practices has even farther-reaching effects. And when you see how this impacts your community and the world around you — well, that’s enough to make you want to double down on your efforts. Here are our top 5 ways that organic farming and gardening are good for the environment.
1. Decreases Indoor Pollution Risk
Indoor air pollution can be up to 5 times higher than outdoors, in part because of the use of synthetic chemicals in the yard or garden. You, your children, and even your pets can track these chemicals indoors where they can create a multitude of health issues. Organic gardening, then, not only betters the environment outside, but inside as well.
2. Protects Wildlife
Insects, birds, and other wildlife depend upon clean water and plant life to live, and if synthetic chemicals drift into wooded areas and run off into waterways, these critters are going to have a rough go of it. Organic gardening practices help to protect these creatures that are a huge part of our ecosystem.
3. Creates Healthier Soil
Since chemicals like pesticides linger in the soil, atmosphere, and waterways long after application, long-term chemical use can alter soil health and structure. When soil is unhealthy, it’s difficult to grow anything in it. Organic gardening practices, by contrast, work to create rich, healthy soil filled with nutrients and teeming with life.
4. Protects Our Food sources
About one third of the world’s food crops depend upon the existence of pollinators like bees and butterflies in order to produce, and using synthetic chemicals in the garden creates a great risk to these creatures. And remember the healthier soil we just talked about? It, too, helps our crops to produce healthier and more nutritious food for you, your family, and your community.
5. Protects Our Water
I’m sure you’re starting to see now how all of these benefits are interrelated. Use, misuse, and overuse of synthetic chemicals create a risk of run-off, and that run-off has to go somewhere. That “somewhere” is often our waterways and watersheds — and cleaning that water before it’s safe to consume comes at a high cost.
