Organic Food Craze

Funny you mention this, my husband and I are trying to figure out the same thing. Mostly I buy organic fruit, meat, and vegetables for my 10 month old daughter. I figure that my husband and I could suffer with chemically treated food.

I have a friend who has a large family and he has bought an organic farm share with two other families. The farm share allows you to buy organic meat, vegetables, and fruits in bulk. Once a month you drive to the farm and pick up your food. The meat is individually packaged which is a real perk. It is expensive, that's why my friend shares with other families yet he has enough food to feed his family and he freezes the rest. I'm currently looking for shares in the Rockland/Bergen County area (my friend lives in Orange County). So far I've found shares that go for $300 a month and am splitting the bill with my mother and sister who are interested in going Organic.

There are two ways to answer this question.

Number One- If you are trying to eat the same way you do now, except switch your current products to organic ones, you probably won't be able to stay on a budget.

Number Two- If you decide to truly live naturally, embracing the ideals behind the buzzwords, chances are you can stay on a budget and perhaps beat the one you have now. For instance, rather than switching from regular paper towels to the outrageously expensive organic ones, you can buy barmops and wipe up spills and dirty hands with those. Buy em once and you have em for years. Eat seasonally (say, emphasize root vegetables,bulk legumes and whole grains in winter rather than serving a big salad or a fruit salad with strawberries), don't waste anything (when I spend $10 on an organic chicken, I roast it for a dinner, make a chicken salad for sandwiches with leftover meat, then simmer the bones for 6 hours up to a couple days, to make the richest most flavorful and nutritious stock for a soup base. Then I don't have to spend $3 on a 4 cup package of organic chicken stock because I have just made 10 cups with my leftover bones). And these ideas are just scratching the surface... The way we eat as Americans is just rather out of balance. Just switching our usual items to an organic version isn't really the answer.... its returning to a mindset of eating with the seasons, not wasting things, and choosing re-usable over use-it-once-and-throw-it-out... not to mention making your own cleaning products with baking soda and vinegar and a choice few essential oils. You really don't need a separate spray for every surface in your house... 3 or 4 homemade ones do the trick and save you a bundle.

We spend just as much at the grocery store as our friends who don't eat organically especially now with the rising cost of food. The difference is I cook from scratch and buy in bulk- they buy easy-to-make premade boxed food. We eat a lot around here and we are on a strict budget but it is important to us to be healthy when we're older unlike many of our relatives who are lifeless pill poppers by the age of 45. It's not only eating organically that is important - it's not filling your body with chemicals and preservatives. Do your homework on what some of those chemicals are on the labels of the popular brand name foods everyone has been gorging themselves with for the past 50 years and compare that to the declining health of this country - seems obvious to me. If you ever want more info on buying organically I would be happy to help you out - we all have to start somewhere.

Well I buy whats on sale,

I don't worry about organic VS NON organic,
I know many parents are really into the whole organic thing,

I do what I can, Cloth diapers ect..

But when it comes to the foods, I just don't by it.

lets face it,the reason they started treating the cows, and veggies was for our betterment, Now its better to eat more "Natural" foods, which of course expose us to other things.

Don't get me wrong, if organic is available I tend to steer toward it,

I personally am not 100 percent sold.

Good luck and great topic.

M

i try to buy organic as much as i can, but i dont go crazy. google it and see which foods are most important to get organic. i know many fruits, especially strawberries, peaches... and meat and dairy especially important, but it depends who you talk to. i also go buy what we, especially my kids, eat the most of. i will go out of my way to buy organic bananas, milk, and yogurt because my kids eat so much of these. the rest i get when i can and when the price is decent. whole foods is so expensive, but you can do pretty well at fairway. bjs wholesale has some organics too, including milk and some fruits and frozen veggies. the way i see it, we are drowning in chemicals, i think its important to reduce as much as possible, especially for their little growing bodies. its worth some extra $$ imo, i would rather skimp elsewhere.

I heard from a local farmer that locally grown foods have fewer pesticides and preservative-type chemicals, because they don't have to be shipped. Not sure if this is true, but I DO like to support the local folks.

As far as organic goes, Parenting mag does an article or 2 every year about which fruits and veggies to focus on. Check out http://www.parenting.com/article/Mom/Health/Eating-Green-...
In a nutshell: buy organic peaches, apples, strawberries, potatoes, soy, milk, eggs, and ... ketchup! (because kids eat so much of it) I also do organic carrots and spinach, due to high nitrate? levels (it's been so long I can't remember!).

We don't count the cost difference for the short list above. We DO buy organic when we see the cost difference is negligible, but we go for the regular stuff when the organic is at least 50% more. Watch your brands too! For example, where I shop, regular Kraft mac-n-cheese is about $.75-$.85. Annie's organic is $1.10. Kraft organic is $1.50! We only buy it once a month, but we buy Annie's every time. Of course, fresh veggie prices fluctuate constantly, so it's hard to say what's more expensive. I do know that carrots are roughly the same price either way.

And here's a tip to keep down costs: Super Walmart. I know, it's the evil empire, but they have great prices on lots of stuff, including organic produce and dairy (and soy milk!). We still shop at "regular" grocery stores for certain things (like my daughter's SUGAR FREE Cascadian Farms O's), but over a month, we spend about $500-$600 (food, cleaning products, toilettries) for our family of 3. We eat the full 5 servings of fruits and veggies every day, exclusively whole grains, and not much processed food (except granola and ice cream). It's going up, of course, but I think we're doing a good job with our budget. Good luck with yours!

I haven't been buying organic. However, it may be cheaper to buy from your local farmers market rather then your local grocery store. Also, this helps support local business and local farmers.

Monica,

Interesting that you mention bananas. I always thought that seemed silly, then someone told me that they spray mustard gas on bananas to get them to change color (mustard gas was used in chemical warfare and is quite dangerous). So I'd say organic bananas are worth it. I would suggest growing your own fruits and veggies if you can, going to a local farm or farmers market if available, and yes, buy organic when you can. One time I had heard that organic is bad because of the animal poo they use to fertilize fruits and veggies...gets bacteria on the produce...that was a long time ago and may be completely not a problem. Just thought I'd throw that out there since I'd heard it before. Although I don't usually buy organic, I do find myself steering that way as I become more concerned about chemicals. I think you are smart to look into it.

D.
35 year old mom of 5