Lok - Go Natural: the No 1 Organic Handbook

I would like to thank God for giving me life, the most important gift of all.

It has been an honour and a privilege to write this book. As with any major project, there are a number of special people who have contributed to making this publication a success. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you.

It has been a privilege to serve in the medical profession for the past fifteen years. I am tremendously grateful to all my patients whom I have had the opportunity to meet during this time. Your ailments and sufferings have inspired me on my journey of discovery which has eventually led to the desire to write this book.

A special thank you to all of the pioneers in the organic movement who have courageously paved the way forward and as a result, given all of us a healthier alternative way of life, free from chemicals and additives.

I would like to say a huge thank you to all the awesome people who are featured in this book. Your dedication to the organic movement and willingness to share your experience is a priceless gift. It has been an honour and a tremendous privilege to work with every one of you and Im sure that thousands of peoples lives will be influenced by the stories and insights that you have shared.

I would like to say a big thank you to our publisher Global Publishing Group and their awesome team, for their dedication and commitment to the books success.

I would also like to say a very special thank you to my father, mother, brother and sister for their utmost love, faith, prayers and encouragement.

And finally, I thank my business partner who is an enduring source of encouragement, hope, creativity and understanding. Your great passion for a truly natural way of living and for the environment has been the greatest inspiration to me. Im truly grateful for your absolute faith and trust in everything that I do, and for keeping up and putting up with me during the challenging moments. Youre simply one-of-a-kind and I thank you for your loyal support.

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

Dr. Esther Lok

Medical Doctor, Author, Speaker& Founder of The OrganicsInstitute of Australia.

Esther is a best-selling author and is recognised as a leading specialist in the area of Medicine & Health, wealth, success and organic living. She is passionate about helping people make more informed choices and creating healthier and happier & successful lifestyles. As the founder and CEO of The Organics Institute she speaks and consults around the world.

Esthers achievements and dedication to health are many having formerly been awarded the FJ Brown Prize for Obstetrics & Gynaecology, First Class Honours MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery), Top Medal in Australasian College of Emergency Medicine and the Central Clinical School Teaching Award for Excellence in Teaching.

For the past 15 years Esther has worked, travelled, consulted and spoken to people in over 5 countries including doing special missions work in Sri Lanka in 1993.

Esther started her wealth creation at a young age buying and renovating over 20 properties in just 7 years; a passion which led her to creating successful businesses. Now Esther shares her passion helping other people to become healthy, wealthy and successful in all areas of their lives.

She is the author of the best-selling book series Go Natural.

Esther is the co-founder and board member of The Organics Institute and a member of the Australian College of Emergency Medicine and a member of the Australian Medical Board.

She has a Doctoral Degree in Medicine & Surgery from the University of Sydney. For over a decade she has supported many charitable organisations and volunteered in Medical Disaster teams such as the Christmas Bushfires in 2001.

Esther currently lives in Australia.

History of the organic movement

What is organic?

Why is there a need for organic certification?

How to tell genuine organic products?

Conventional farming is all about killing things.

Organic farming is about promoting life.Rob Bauer

History of the organic movement

The organic movement is more of a renaissance than a revolution.

Until the 1920s, all agriculture was generally organic. Farmers used natural means to feed the soil and to control pests. Food reached our table in much the same form as it left the farm. We ate seasonal, organic produce grown locally or harvested from the land and sea, transported a short distance, then purchased and consumed within days. Often, we grew our own vegetables or knew the people who grew them.

Today we eat food sourced from all over the world, often as a product of questionable farming practices. Food is generally picked unripe, sprayed or waxed to preserve it, kept in cold storage, transported long distances, gassed into ripeness and then sold on supermarket shelves, weeks or months after it was first picked.

Farmed seafood and animals in most cases are fed on unnatural pelletised diets fortified with hormones and antibiotics and bred in an inhumane, crowded and unnatural environment.

It wasnt until the Second World War that farming methods changed dramatically. It was when research on chemicals designed as nerve gas showed they were also capable of killing insects. In 1939, Paul Muller developed DDT, the first of a new class of insecticides chlorinated hydrocarbons to counter the pest problems.

Since then, a new way of farming emerged, where the use of chemicals was heavily promoted. This led to the outright dismissal of organic farming methods.

The modern organic movement began at the same time as industrialised agriculture. It began in Europe around the 1920s, when a group of farmers and consumers sought alternatives to the industrialisation of agriculture. The first organic organisation was set up in 1929, based on the teachings of Rudolph Steiner (1861), an Austrian scholar who was concerned that the use of chemicals undermined the fertility of Germanys land.

Steiners theory of biodynamic farming is an enhanced method of organic farming which creates rich, living soil essential to the health and vitality of life on a farm. It is a holistic approach that includes application of organic standards, use of special formulations and natural preparations for pest control, compost and manure treatments, companion planting, astrological timing, lunar cycles and considers the spiritual interactions between people, plants and the universe.

The Bio-Dynamic Agricultural Association is based in Europe with offices in many countries including UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Bio-dynamic farmers and growers use the symbol Demeter which is an internationally respected accreditation.

In Britain, the organic movement had gathered pace in the 1940s. Lady Eve Balfour wrote The Living Soil, a book on organics, inspired by the work of Sir Albert Howard and Sir Robert McCarrison. In 1946, she joined with several others to set up Soil Association in the UK, which became the largest organic certifier in the UK.