Shopping is a daily action that often leads us to have to choose between price and quality, the latter not always certified. So how can you extricate yourself from the various proposals of the supermarket or market? In addition to taste, the consumption of organic food plays an important role in health. But not only that, choosing The "organic" brand means consuming processed food and products without the use of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics, growth hormones and GMOs. Short-chain foods and drinks, produced and sold in the same restricted geographical area, are defined as "zero km". These are therefore fresh and seasonal foods, which often pass directly from the field to the table, guaranteeing both the nutrient content and the quality. Another important factor to underline is the importance of seasonality. It is no coincidence that nature provides us with artichokes and asparagus in the changing seasons; cabbages and cauliflowers (rich in Vit. C and organic sulfur compounds that stimulate parthenogenesis) grow in winter and tomatoes, peppers (rich in carotene), cucumbers, zucchini, watermelon (rich in water) come to our aid in summer. Our organism has evolved in close relationship with the surrounding environment and it is almost trivial to see how seasonal food provides us exactly what we need when we need it! Therefore, give priority to fruit and vegetables by choosing the seasonal one and preferably at Km 0. If you want "out of season" products then buy frozen ones rather than imported ones. Furthermore, the products at Km 0 reward the many small producers of which our country is rich and who, while working ethically and respecting the territory, cannot bear the costs of organic certification.
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In 2020, we are now aware of the impact that climate change has on our lives and how the future of our planet depends on it. The need to make changes to human behavior is crucial for the protection of our ecosystem, because the survival of all the animal and plant species present that populate the earth depends on it. Biodiversity makes our plan unique, and its richness of variety guarantees the presence of resources that man needs to continue living. An ecological and eco-sustainable choice, which respects the environment and makes the best use of its resources, respecting the needs of nature and man, is now necessary and cannot be postponed, because the unraveling of diversity will have negative effects on ecosystems and man same.
These choices also concern the production and use of food resources, whose seasonality has been forcedly replaced by extremely invasive techniques and tools, which have brought to our tables foods that no longer follow their natural path of development and growth. Each type of product is made available to us in the quantities and periods of the year that we prefer; the now disproportionate demand for food, which follows the dictates of consumer culture, completely and immediately, meant that the seasonal cycles were lost, with the consequence that the natural development of the products in the seasons of which they were part was compromised.
How can we try to re-establish, as far as possible, the natural course of growth cycles? A first step in this direction could be to return to the raw materials that the earth offers us in the periods and seasons that it deems most right. A fundamental role in the development of an agriculture that takes care of the land and provides the best products it offers is that played by the farmer. Who can teach us to choose the best products if not the one who touches the earth with his hands and whose secrets he knows? So how can we reconcile this atavistic knowledge that can concretely contribute to the improvement of our food choices, and the common interest of consumers, to choose natural, genuine and cultivated products with respect for nature itself?