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The Benefits and Drawbacks of Organic Gardening

Consider three luscious red tomatoes set on a wooden cutting board, ready for your enjoyment. They've all come from various places; can you determine which was cultivated organically?

Two of the tomatoes were meticulously nurtured in backyard gardens, one in a conventional garden and one in an organic garden. The third tomato came from the grocery store, and it's simple to rule it out of the guessing game.

The supermarket tomato resembles a light-red tennis ball in size and shape. This tomato was plucked green, has traveled more than a thousand miles from farm to shop, and has been on the shelf for weeks looking no worse for wear.

Set this one aside for now. It was most definitely not developed organically. If you want to know more about organic gardening, visit CoolsGarden.com.

Only two are left. For the purpose of the game, let's suppose they're the same tomato variety, Big Beef slicers. They are bright red, freshly harvested, and still warm to the touch from the afternoon sun.

It's not so simple to discern the difference between them; we have to delve deeper... literally. The quality of the soil in which they were grown is the most important factor in determining who wins this game: conventional tomato vs. organic tomato.

Chemicals in fertilizers used in typical gardens really degrade the soil's health. Microbes that are essential for making soil nutrients accessible to plants are eradicated.

The lifeless soil needs increasing amounts of traditional fertilizer, yet the plants remain hungry and subject to insects and disease. Enter the lethal chemicals, which are abundantly sprayed on the plant.

The game is becoming more serious now. If you want to eat one of the tomatoes left in our contest, you should be very careful. It has been poisoned.

The organically produced tomato, on the other hand, received fertilizer as well, but this fertilizer was manufactured from naturally occurring elements such as bone meal, fish emulsion, and rock phosphate. These amendments made the soil better, but they didn't hurt the bacteria that help plants get minerals from the soil.

Pesticides were probably unnecessary since a healthy plant creates pest-resistant compounds on its own. However, if there were pests, the organic gardener might have used a homemade spray of hot pepper and garlic, or something else that is safe for people to use.

There are a few more tactics that the organic gardener is likely to have utilized, such as tilling in a cover crop to provide organic material for the bacteria and earthworms to degrade. This technique produces a crumbly-textured soil that retains moisture while allowing the roots to breathe.

Even without the soil enhancement provided by a cover crop, it's very obvious which tomato is healthier: the only nutrients detected in the fruit had to come from what was available in the soil. Organically cultivated tomatoes are more nutritious.

What is less evident is which tomato has the best taste. A test of the sugar-to-acid ratio may be performed, although this isn't a huge issue. The taste of both conventionally produced and organically grown tomatoes is much better than that of the substandard tomatoes available in most stores.

The first challenge in this tomato guessing game was whether or not you could distinguish which of the luscious, juicy tomatoes on the cutting board was organic. It turns out that it's difficult to determine merely by seeing or even tasting.

So, what is the big deal? Specifically, this is sustainability. Growing conventionally depletes and finally destroys the soil. Organic farming practices, on the other hand, actively develop and enhance the soil.

Finally, the organic, healthy tomato is better for your health and for the soil from which all future crops will grow, so it's a good choice.