Play in the Wild! is committed to the practice of Ahimsa, or Nonviolence. We believe that eating, buying and supporting organic food is nonviolence to self because it nourishes our body’s health; nonviolence to our communities because it supports farmers to live well and contributes to the health of others;, and nonviolence to all life because it cares for the well-being and future of people, land, rivers, and animals. Because of this, all of the food we offer on our treks and intensives is organic, with rare exceptions. To understand how we came to this decision and to address some common misconceptions about organic food, we offer the following FAQ:

What's the difference between organic and conventional food?
Conventional food uses synthetic or chemical herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, irradiation, and hormones in the production of food. Organic food is produced without these chemicals, synthetic ingredients or bioengineering. Organic food is produced using practices that restore, maintain, and enhance ecological harmony.

Isn't organic some rich hippie thing?
Before the 20th century, ALL food was grown organically. The history of organic food/agriculture can be traced back literally thousands of years. The history of "conventional" food is less than a hundred years old. Organic farming is the original/traditional way to farm.

Why did people stop growing organically?
The belief was that using chemical treatments in producing crops and growing animals for consumption increases the amount of food a farm could produce, so more people can be fed. Also, new industrial and agricultural jobs were created to support this way of growing food.

So, what's so bad about conventional food?
In the early 1970s, some agricultural experts came to realize that chemicals used to produce conventional food were having a seriously negative effect on both the environment and on people's health. Even as early as 1924, the British botanist Sir Albert Howard believed that traditional Indian farming practices, which he studied for 20 years in Pusa, Bengal, were superior to his conventional agriculture science. Today, rather than increasing the amount of food a farm can produce, many conventional farmers are finding that it now takes five to ten times as much synthetic fertilizer as 20 years ago, just to get the same amount of crops, because the soil has deteriorated so much from the use of chemicals. Because of this, many experts fear a future global food shortage. Organic farming produces more food at less cost to the health of people and the planet, and ensures that we'll have enough food for everyone long into the future.

Sometimes, but not always, organic food prices are higher at the supermarket. Buying organic directly from farmers is a cheaper way to go, plus you'll know that all the money is actually going to the farmer, not the supermarket or chemical companies. Also, grocery store prices do not include the hidden costs of that food. Conventional food is subsidized by university and industry research, health care and clean up costs of pesticide pollution, and substandard wages for farm laborers. Basically, conventional food is cheap if you ignore that your taxes are helping pay the chemical companies, that your doctor bills are related to the chemical food you put in your body, that the polluted
rivers and land will have to be cleaned up at some point in the future, and that the workers that helped grow your food may not have enough money to live on.

• Talk to organic farmers near you at your local farmer’s market (find one now at localharvest.org!).
• Search online for “organic food facts”
• Read authors Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, and Eric Schlosser.
• Watch either, “The Future of Food” or "Food, Inc.", or check out Grocery Store Wars, below!