Saturday May 17th, 2008
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Organic Where It Counts
Posted by Jessica Harlan on September 13, 2007 - 7:50am.
If I only bought organic produce for my family to eat, I'd be broke. I always compare prices of organic and conventional, and sometimes I just can't bear to pay, say, $4.99 for a pint of organic blueberries when the regular berries are half that price.The only one in our family who eats solely organic is our baby Sadie, and the fact that I can spend $30 on a few days' worth of organic, all-natural fruits, vegetables, and snacks for her at Whole Foods is even more of a testament to the fact that limiting our entire household to organic goods would be prohibitive.
Obviously, I don't want to expose the rest of my family to pesticides and other toxins, and I like the idea of supporting farmers and businesses that are doing their best to protect the environment. How to compromise?
Perhaps you've heard of the "Dirty Dozen." I'm not talking about the wartime classic movie, I'm talking about the list that the Environmental Working Group has put together of the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables. According to the group, consumers can lower their pesticide exposure by nearly 90 percent if they avoid eating the conventional versions of this produce. The "Cleanest 12," or least contaminated fruits and vegetables are also tracked, and the EWG claims that if you stick to these choices, you'll be exposed to less than 2 pesticides a day, compared to exposure to about 14 pesticides per day if your diet is high in "Dirty Dozen" choices.
I've downloaded and printed out the EWG's Wallet Guide so that I can start buying organic where it counts the most.
As a newly minted Georgia girl, I was sad to see that peaches were among the worst offenders. And for some reason, it's difficult to find organic local peaches—the few organic ones I've had are from California, which means that even though they're organic, they've done their own brand of damage by racking up food miles.
The foods we eat most on the "dirty" list are apples, bell peppers, and spinach, so I make sure to always buy the organic versions of these. In fact, the past couple of weeks, as I've visited the handful of grocery stores that I generally frequent in my neighborhood, I've made note of the prices of these three items so that I can make sure I'm getting the best deal. Here's what I discovered:
Apples
$1.69 to $2.99 at the independent food warehouse, Your DeKalb Farmer's Market
$2.29 to $2.99 at Kroger
$1.99 to $2.99 at Sevananda, my local food co-op
$2.49 to $2.99 at Whole Foods
Baby Spinach, 5 ounce package
$2.89 at DeKalb Farmer's Market
$3.49 at Kroger
$3.79 at Sevananda
$3.49 at Whole Foods
Green Peppers
$1.99/lb at DeKalb Farmer's Market
$1.79 each at Kroger
$2.69/lb at Sevananda
$1.49/lb at Whole Foods
It's interesting that no one store is unilaterally cheaper than the others, although DeKalb Farmer's Market definitely has better prices in most things (which I've noticed when I've done my entire weekly shop there—typically it can be as much as $20 cheaper than at Kroger). But it was a good exercise to compare prices so that I can know where to get the best deals, and plan accordingly as I'm in the area of certain stores.
Luckily, the EPA's Wallet Guide has some good news—some of my favorite and most frequently used fruits and vegetables, including onions, avocados, frozen peas and asparagus, are among the "Cleanest 12." It's nice to know that not everything will kill you!
Topics:
- Food
- buying organics
- food co-op
- Food for Thought
- grocery shopping
- Local Harvest
- pesticides
- Whole Foods
I try hard to feed my family as healthy foods as possible but with our budget, I am unable to purchase ALL organic foods as much as I want to. Like you, I purchase organics of fruits and veggies that are higher in pesticides than others...good to hear that someone else does this too and I am not alone doing the best that I can!
While I know we all want to buy organic, I agree that it is quite costly. I have also started comparing the prices at my local stores. I have both Whole Foods and Wild Oats along with the regular supermarkets. I also have Trader Joe's, which does have better prices on some items. The problem I run into is on some weekends I am at all 3 stores, starting with where I know the best prices are to the highest price, if I can't find something I want. This is a tremendous waste of gas. I think I posted about that before. I have tried our local farmers market, but here in Las Vegas, the ones I have been too, have not been great. I bought tasteless tomoatoes and strawberries that went bad too quickly.
Organic peaches hard to find in Georgia, eh? Sounds like an advocacy campaign just waiting to happen.
The other piece of the pie here (I guess your discussion of fruits gave me pie on the brain!) is that price of produce is also largely determined by seasonality. I've found that two things you mention, blueberries and peppers, vary wildly in price during the year even for those conventionally grown with pesticides. I won't even touch blueberries unless it's summer. Not only are they expensive, they also taste horrible.
There's also a great resource book called Grub (reviewed on LIME not long ago), which shows that if you eat seasonally, it's actually the least expensive way to eat. For the skeptical, they produce an actual shopping list, a lot like your own. I highly recommend checking it out! I think there's also a companion website, www.eatgrub.org, although I'm not sure they have the shopping list there. You might have to buy the book or get it from your library.
Thanks. I primarily purchase apples and bananas as stock fruits in our home. I had been buying organic bananas at Wal-Mart, but didn't see much difference in taste. But when picking up organic apples from Wild Oats, I discovered a large difference in taste. So I'll buy organic apples from now on since they are high on the list.
On a side note, a few weeks ago, I tried to make a full-time switch from Wal-Mart to Wild Oats. My grocery bill more than doubled and I was a little dismayed to find Wild Oats selling one of the same brands of milk as Wal-Mart but at $2 more. Additionally, one of the organic yogurts I bought had an expiration date two weeks prior as I discovered after my daugther spit it out. And two of the Trader Joe freezer products, a pizza and "organic" hamburgers, tasted freezer-burned and horrible. So, on this note, I have gone back to a loyal customer of Wal-Mart and am glad to discover the stores carry some organic products. It's just a shame it's always such a madhouse.
Here's to healthy eating.
When I shop at Whole Foods, I go directly to the meats section and see what items are on sale. They usually are trying to get rid of some meat that is about to go beyond the expiration date and that is usually what I make for dinner that night or freeze. You can get some great deals this way.
By the way, there was a problem with WHole Foods purchasing WIld Oats and they actually have not been purchased to my recollection.
I'm in southern California, so I don't know how nation-wide these are... but I would think there would be a good amount throughout the country. Fresh, local farmer's markets are a good place to shop for organic/local/in season/cheaper-than-in-stores produce (at least in my area they are). I get all our produce for the week at the one in my town every Saturday. It's nice to get to know the farmer that's growing your food, know it's organic, fresh, local, and in-season. I stock up and only spend about $25/week on TONS of things!
We're also thinking of joining a local CSA (community supported agriculture) program. We'd pay $100/month and each week, we'd pick up a box full of in-season (and organic) produce that was grown on that farm. I know some will deliver to you & you can look to see if there's a CSA in your area.... I don't have the url (sorry!), but know that if you search CSA, it'll come up.