Issues > March/April 2006 (#113) > Organic Beer

Organic Beer

Updated March 15, 2007

As you eat your burger made from grassfed, locally-raised beef, what better way to wash it down than with an organic beer? No doubt, these days local foods are all the rage, but microbreweries have been championing homegrown products with enormous success for years. And they've added organic to their menus with zeal—U.S. organic beer sales increased 40 percent in 2005 to $19 million. Seeing a good thing, Anheuser-Busch, the nation's largest beer maker, rolled out two organic brews in September 2006. So if you drink this Saint Patrick's Day or any other, try a full-bodied organic but limit your consumption; the flavor in one local brew alone should satisfy you.

The Problems

Personal Health

Moderate use of beer may be relaxing and satisfying, but it involves the consumption of alcohol, a known carcinogen. As the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services warns in its Ninth Report on Carcinogens, "Consumption of alcoholic beverages is causally related to cancers of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus," and there are possible connections between consumption of alcoholic beverages and breast and liver cancers. This report also found other "components and contaminants" besides ethanol in wine, beer, and spirits that known or suspected human carcinogens, including acetaldehyde, nitrosamines, aflatoxins, ethyl carbamate (urethan), asbestos, and arsenic compounds. No clear information is available on dosage levels and harm to health, but alcoholic beverages indisputably contain substances carcinogenic to humans.

Environmental

Beer is made primarily from barley and hops, with some wheat used to make "wheat beers." Producing these grains commercially involves the use of herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides, as well as fossil-fuel derived fertilizers. Hops are particularly susceptible to fungus, which conventional growers treat with large amounts of fungicide. These chemicals pose threats to human health and ecosystems.

Transporting beer around the world consumes fossil fuel resources. According to The Rodale Institute, the average mouthful of American food travels 1400 miles. When that mouthful of food is beer, a heavy liquid often distributed in a heavy glass bottle, which waits to be consumed for days or weeks in a refrigerated case, the fossil fuel consumption is particularly large. Moreover, more than 10 percent of US beer is imported, journeying from even farther distances to reach American consumers.

Currently, the small scale of organic grain production for beer also requires fossil fuels to transport these grains to brewers. Because of the current small demand, there are only a few providers of certified organic malt in the North America, and organic hops must for the most part be imported from New Zealand. Organic brewers hope that with increased demand for their product, there will be a greater incentive to grow more organic barley and hops in the United States, which will not only help small farmers, but also reduce the oil consumed in transportation.

PAGE 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5  NEXT