The Mediterranean diet is widely regarded as one of the healthiest on the planet, with reported benefits including longer lifespans, healthy aging and the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

But not very many people know that food from the Med is considered to be better for the environment too because it’s heavily based on plants, nuts, fish, a little wine and a drizzle of oil.  With fruit, vegetables, nuts, pulses, grains and fish the Mediterranean diet relies less on big emission food categories.

It’s closer to the Eat Well Lancet diet – good for the planet and for human health.  Mass produced, additive laden and hyper-processed foods are avoided and the type of preserves used are traditional, old fashioned forms of preserving from both land and sea at the time of harvest.  All of which means the basic Mediterranean diet is low waste and low in empty calories too.

So far so good but what about how the food is grown? This brings us round to Organico Realfoods, and why we choose to combine the Mediterranean diet with Organic agriculture. As a well-established organic food company with a strong track record in sustainability and quality, with products ranging from sparkling fruit juices to Moroccan olives, and vegan pesto direct from Genoa, Organic values lie at the heart of our company. 

Organic agriculture is proven to positively support biodiversity of all species, from the forgotten insects and even worms and micro-organism burrowing under the soil through to the bees, that are been destroyed by neonicotinoids, birds and larger fauna that can survive in a toxic free environment with tree cover, plant variety and of course other species to feed on. Organic agriculture protects soil quality, making the richness and fertility of soil a central tenet of organic farming and preventing the run-off off nutrients associated with intensely farmed monocrops.  With 1/3rd of soils suffering from moderate through to serious soil erosion, this benefit of organic farming should not be sneered at.  Last but not least water quality.  The water impact of global agro-industrial farming which uses close to 3/4s of the world’s fresh water is so bad that millions are been spent cleaning polluted waters and more than 400 coastal zones are now starved of life across the world.

At Organico Realfoods we work with pioneering organic farms – people who are 100% committed to organic agriculture, who tend to go beyond the regulation minimum to enhance their biodiversity but also the organic practice, bringing better yields, liaising with Universities and research departments, experimenting new and better agro-ecological techniques and encouraging wildlife and biodiversity.  These “best of” farmers are often those who also care about what they make and know the identity, foibles and specialties of what they grow which we believes translates into better tasting products.