GREEN beer
When it comes to getting drunk on St. Patty’s day, I’m thinking about what to wear, how to get home, and well, who I’m taking home. The last thing on my mind is going green. No, not green, like, "Oh my gosh, pinch me, I’m not wearing green!” more like global warming, earth friendly going green. Today, stores such as Wal-mart, target, and JC Penny are going to the extreme with “GO GREEN”, which, in all reality, I respect. I mean, hey, I have a reusable shopping bag; it was a gift. But when I read a headline featured on msn.com that says “GREEN BEER” and not “GREEN” as in the color green, I begin to worry.
Organic beer. It sounds like a great idea if it has better flavor. But if you’re choosing your brand of beer by your philosophy of “going green”, you need to come up with something better. Let’s explore definitions shall we.
According to Wikipedia.org:
“Organic foods are made according to certain production standards. The use of Conventional non organic pesticides, insecticides and herbicides is greatly restricted and avoided as a last resort. However, contrary to popular belief, certain non-organic fertilizers are still used. If livestock are involved, they must be reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones, and generally fed a healthy diet.”
OKAY! Let’s look at this logically. Organic means grown naturally without the use of chemicals. By the way, if you’re looking for organic fertilizers, try human feces… what ever works for you. What’s funny about this is that pesticide use is harmless. According to epa.org, the risk is outweighed dramatically by the benefit. Pesticides are a risk because it’s meant to kill small organisms, like, well, you know, BUGS. Pesticides now-a-days DON’T HARM HUMANS, let alone to harm the environment. There are too many regulations to harm the environment. I’m sure you could harm a human if you continued to spray a pesticide in his face for a continuous amount of time, but that is unrealistic. It’s just like saying you can’t spray for bugs in your house because you will breathe in the same amount that bugs are. IT KILLS THE BUGS, but if you were around while it was sprayed, yeah, could cause damage; however, these sprays have year round protection. So, you can continuously breathe in poison but you eat organic food. This just doesn’t make sense. The benefit to pesticides is that it kills organisms that could potentially spread disease.
So, after reviewing this information, how are organic foods, let alone BEER, going green? You’re not saving the environment; you’re just exposing yourself to other dangers.
So, if you want to save the environment, recycle, conserve energy, but stop eating organic foods to “GO GREEN”. If you really want to eat organic food or drink organic beer, it should be for the taste. Organic foods taste amazing. Organic farmers take very good care of the crop. However, people need to stop saying that by using organic foods, it’s going green.
If you want to see the article that sparked my attention, read it yourself
http://green.msn.com/Green-Living/organic-brewers-dozen/?GT1=45002
