Are Organic Foods Worth the Price?

Don’t tell my husband, (don’t worry, he never reads this, and if he does I’ll post an apology) but our grocery bill has gone up TONS since I’ve started eating primarily organic! I used to pride myself on walking out of the grocery store with 3 full shopping bags and only $20 dollars lighter. Now I have register shock every time I fill just one or two grocery bags!

So, is it worth it? Many of you may have heard of the “Dirty Dozen”. It’s from the US Department of Agriculture and it’s the twelve pieces of produce they say you should ALWAYS buy organic. It seems that no matter how much you wash these fruits and veges, a lot of pesticides remain. So for those of you that don’t even wash your produce, you might be extra concerned!

So just what does our government recommend we always buy organic?

Apples

Cherries

Grapes, imported (Chili)(personal note-don’t buy Natures Partner either)

Nectarines

Peaches

Pears

Raspberries

Bell peppers

Celery

Potatoes

Spinach

Potatoes

Strawberries

Okay, that’s thirteen but who’s counting?

Strawberries. Who doesn’t love a fresh strawberry?

Strawberry Shortcake, Yum. Chocolate dipped strawberries – Yum Yum! I haven’t been able to eat a non-organic strawberry since I saw the movie “The Future of Food”. One of the final scenes is in a strawberry field, you see a man dressed in a gas mask, full suit of protective gear, carrying a small machine with a long nozzle, lifting up each strawberry leaf to get better access to the strawberry fruit that he douses with a steady stream of his chemicals – then cut to young boy popping a plump, fresh strawberry into his mouth! UGH! I don’t want to eat those chemicals, don’t want my kids to eat them, and as cheap as I am, discovered I didn’t want the guests at my last party to eat them either.

And potatoes. Wow, somehow I thought the ground would protect them, but of course that was before I knew about how the treated the dirt with synthetic nitrogen before planting, among other icky things I’m sure. Now new research is finding that the synthetic nitrogen actually destroys soil carbon instead of enriching it. An ultimate end result is more nitrates in ground water that then enters the atmosphere as nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas with some 300 times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide (read more here http://www.grist.org/article/2010-02-23-new-research-synthetic-nitrogen-destroys-soil-carbon-undermines-/ ). BTW, nitrogen is used for nearly all conventional crops, its just that potatoes really remind me of it.

So, is it all worth paying more for organics? I know this is just a small, small argument for a very large topic, but yes, it is. Not only for me, but for all the current and future residents of the earth. All these pesticides are terrible for our health, it’s no wonder we have “grown” so many more diseases since the 1970’s when pesticides, herbicides etc started becoming so widespread. Innocent residents near fields of sprayed crops are adversely affected from drift, so much that the EPA is considering increasing buffer zones around fields (more info http://action.ufw.org/page/s/epadrifts or see below).

Bottom line, we’re all worth the few more dollars it’s costing to fill my grocery bag. Aren’t you worth it?

Catchin' up

I’ve had a hard time finding time to sit down and write lately, so this is just a little catch-up on some things.

I’ve started getting my gardens ready. I’m increasing the size of last years garden by about 3-4 times, I hope to have plenty of fresh, organic veggies this summer! And maybe some to can/pickle etc too. But this has taken a lot of time. I’ve had to establish the new locations, which has involved a lot of horse manure and incoming dirt, as well as planning what goes where. I want to use the rotation method to help fight pests year after year, which means planting like items together and following them next year with other specific groups of veggies. I’m tracking everything on a spreadsheet too, just so I know year after year what does or doesn’t work. I’ve never spent so much paper time on a garden! I’m hoping for a great payoff…

Rain barrels are sitting on the back patio, husband says he’ll get the reservoir area ready for me so I’ve not worked on that, I figure he easily has until at least the end of April before I even want to start using them, so I won’t rush him yet.

I’ve been trying to be aware of where my food comes from and who picks it. I’m following United Farm Workers issues regularly, among others, and it was recently brought to my attention the overall state of a county might affect my food-buying decisions. What do I mean by this? I was completing a survey for a college student about being a vegetarian and one of the questions, along with how I feel about animals, was “Do you buy food from countries that violate human rights?” I had honestly never thought about it in those terms before! I mean, I now know to avoid grapes and anything from Giumarra / Natures Partner because of their terrible treatment of their pickers, (curious? See http://www.ufw.org//_board.php?mode=view&b_code=org_key&b_no=14&page=&field=&key=&n=) but it never occurred to me to boycott a nation as a whole. Well except China. So, while I’m already very busy, I’m going to raise my awareness of the countries I’m buying from. For produce I already try to buy local only, but of course getting into canned and paper products etc are another story. Oh, and don’t get me started on the whole paper business. Who knew there were tree-free papers? I have a lot to learn J Thank goodness for input from everyone, I figure if everyone can educate someone just a little bit we all can eventually get all the good information passed around. Then the earth will be a happy place .. ah, happy thoughts!

And the chiropractor? Feedback says to switch, and I likely will, I just have a hard time breaking up with her since the rest of the family sees her. I will eventually do it though, and I have a great referral already to make an appointment with.

I’m also launching a vegetarian/vegan consulting business aimed primarily at the food service/restaurant industry -another thing to keep me busy, but it’s so necessary for people like me! Me- a mostly vegan vegetarian. While I understand the reasoning behind vegan choices I’m simply about the ethical treatment of said animals. I’ve decided being 100% vegan is not for me – that horse manure in my garden? Not vegan. My chicken eggs? So not vegan.

I hope to have more useful information next post, and sooner too! I do appreciate all feedback and ideas, so keep them coming!

Is Lifestyle Imprtant?

One of my goals is to look at everywhere I spend money and ask myself if I agree with how the purveyor of the product or service conducts themselves or business. Money is about the only tool I have to cast a strong vote, and if I think your product or service is worth it, you can have my money. I’ve already written a lot about my new practices of buying primarily organic, or at least non-gmo food products, even though I still have a long way to go with every purchase I make.

Services are a little different though. We often take for granted the people we pay to fix our bodies, our cars, our TV’s etc. Typically we don’t really care what they do in their off time as long as they are good at what they do. I’m beginning to think this another way though, similar to products. I don’t’ really want to support someone that has completely different ethical practices than I do.

And this brings me to my current dilemma.. I really like my chiropractor; she’s a very nice person and has very nice staff. She appears to be very knowledgeable, although I have to take that at face value as I have nothing to judge it by, and she’s very professional and has been a good doctor to every member of my family. But, I just don’t feel right gong there anymore. My body cries when I’m there, not in true pain of course, but just in the “this isn’t right” way. And I know she has some lifestyle habits that are completely against my personal priorities, but then so does my husband and most of my family. So does this justify finding a new chiropractor?

I wonder to myself – am this going too far? Firing someone just because they do things differently than you seems rather intolerant and brings on a superiority issue. I hope that’s not what’s going on in my head, some underlying belief that everyone must be like me. But on the other hand, shouldn’t I want to support people that do have the same beliefs as I do?

I’d love to hear feedback on this, on the blog or in person, feedback either way. Just wondering if I am going a bit overboard!