ecobites

Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

Monkeys and Chimpanzees at Copenhagens Zoo are going ape over organic bananas and other fruits, rejecting conventional foods left in their cages according to zookeepers.  

 Keeper Niels Melchiorsen told the magazine Oekologisk Jordbrug (Ecological Agriculture): "For one reason or another, the tapirs and chimpanzees are choosing organically grown bananas over the others.

"Maybe they are able to instinctively tell the difference and their choice is not at all random," Mr Melchiorsen suggested.

"The chimpanzees are able to tell the difference between the organic and the regular fruit.

"If we give them organic and traditional bananas, they systematically choose the organic bananas, which they eat with the skin on.

"But they peel the traditional bananas before eating them," he added.

The animals may be choosing organically because of fewer pesticide residues, better taste, or higher nutrient content. Numerous published scientific feeding trials with rabbits, rats and chickens since 1984 that have consistently shown the same effect. But more importantly, more and more people are switching to organic food.

Today's consumers want to know what is and is not in their food, and organic standards give them a very clear statement.

German researcher Katrin Woese also reported in her literature review that "animals distinguish between the foods on offer from the various agricultural systems and almost exclusively prefer organic produce".

Organic food is an important safe haven in today's polluted and processed world. Organic food is not a luxury.

It is how food is supposed to be.

Even a monkey knows that!

Source ABC News