Buying Organic

Why buy organic?

This is a good question, and to be honest, there's a lot of conflicting information out there, even in the very books that I quote.

For me, like I've mentioned before, I always buy organic. The only time I choose not to, is if the product I'm buying isn't available at the time I need it. And in those rare cases, I will buy conventional. However, I will not buy conventional greens, berries, apples, and other thin-skinned produce. That's just me. The one big exception is bananas, since I use them so often. There, I choose which is best, regardless of cost. At Trader Joe's, it's $0.19 per banana for conventional or $0.29 per banana for organic. And often times, the organic bananas aren't good enough to buy.

As I mentioned previously, when I used to buy dairy and meat, I would always try to buy organic and in the case of salmon, wild. The only exception was when we had a huge party to throw and invited the family over, which like twice a year or so. Then, we would get conventional just to manage costs. My extended family has a voracious and carnivorous palate, I'll explain that in a later blog.

So, back to the question...why buy organic?

For me, there are two main reasons.

1.) For my personal health and peace of mind. Consider that conventional produce, etc. has pesticides, herbicides, larvicides, and other chemicals sprayed directly on them. Also, consider that hormones and antibiotics for conventional animal products and dairy are used. These are very dangerous to your health, and could be the carcinogens that lead to cancer and disease in the long run.

My best friend illustrated it to me this way. Say, you're at a produce market and the vendor is selling apples. The conventional apples are $1.00/lb. and the organic apples are $3.00/lb. But, somehow the vendor runs out of the conventional apples. So a person asks, "Can I get the organic apples, but at the conventional apple price?" So the vendor grabs an organic apple, pulls out a can of "Raid," sprays the organic apples thoroughly, then hands it over and says "Sure, here you go, $1.00 per/lb." Now, would you really want to eat that?

On the meat and dairy front, it would be great if you knew more about how conventional animals are raised these days. I will explore this in another post, but if you have some time, go see the movie "Food Inc." as mentioned in a previous post. Talk about cruelty to animals. I'm not an animal activist, by any stretch, buy I bought organic meat and dairy previously because of the abhorrent conditions and treatment given to these poor creatures. I'm so relieved now, that I will very rarely consume these products ever again, even the organic version. Conventional meat and dairy is downright dangerous, so I'd rather not consume any of it.

2.) The impact that conventional farming has on our environment. Again, I'm not an environmentalist, by any stretch, but I try to do my part. In our home, we recycle, we compost, we use power shut-off to save vampire power, we use CFLs all over, we try to conserve energy and resources, but it's never enough. But, if you see what pesticides and conventional farming do to the land itself, you'd be appalled. Once fertile land is turned dry and lifeless because of conventional farming. Farmers are dying because of it. If you have some time, catch the movie "One Man, One Cow, One Planet" (http://howtosavetheworld.co.nz/index.php) to learn about the atrocities of conventional farming and the hope of organic and biodynamic farming.

I try to buy most of my organic produce from the local farmers market because that also reduces the environmental impact. Note the measure of "food-miles" that lots of tree-huggers and scientists use. The lower the food-miles, the better for the environment. Translated, that means it you buy produce from someone that grows and sells their food locally, it's better than buying it from a far-away place, since we don't have to pay (in carbon) for the fuel and transport costs associated with it. So, "Buy Local" is a mantra that you'll see a lot.

Organic food is expensive, we all know that. It can cost between 2-4x that of conventional, and it not always available. And if you do more research, you'll probably be more confused about it's health benefits, etc. You're not alone, it's a tough decision. Some people will tell you that it's not really necessary, that peeling off the first few layers of leaf lettuce, for example, is good enough. Some people will tell you that buying organic is more important than being vegetarian. Some people will tell you that the nutritional value of organic vs. conventional is astronomically different, and the super-important micronutrients of organic soil are present in the organic produce, and not in conventional. Some will tell you it doesn't matter. I encourage you to do more research and then make your own conclusions. For our family, we go organic.