Comments on: Organic on the cheap! 10 strategies

By: $200/month? Seriously? « Green & Thrifty

$200/month? Seriously? « Green & Thrifty — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:11:51 +0000

[...] are so important. Are you a #2 person? One of my favorite blogs, PhD in Parenting, has a list of 10 ways you can afford organics. She covers everything I have and would say much better than I can so I will only add my own [...]

By: 10 ways to feed your family without killing the planet (Blog Action Day) | PhD in Parenting

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:39:54 +0000

[...] 2. Eat organic: Help mitigate the detrimental effects of climate change by eating more organic food. Organic agriculture eliminates the detrimental effects of pesticides on our environment, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and reduces energy usage. It is possible to incorporate more organics into your family’s diet while on a budget. [...]

By: babyREADY

babyREADY — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:37:44 +0000

@Jay and (to expand upon what was written by @PhD In Parenting)

The other consideration that very few people think of is the reality that many genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and seeds for these GMOs contain pesticides injected right into the seed so the plant itself is resistant to the pests which typically target it (i.e.: tomatoes, strawberries, sweet bell peppers, etc.). It isn’t, therefore, simply about washing the pesticides away, it is about ingesting them in the very meat and pulp of the fruits and veggies that we love. Our, adult, systems may tolerate this adequately but what about the GI systems of our infants and toddlers. Do they not deserve better treatment than that? Where do we draw the line at how many chemicals and toxins are safe for our babies??

By: girlsgoneveggie

girlsgoneveggie — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:59:00 +0000

As a mom of two grown children I agree with everything you have said. As a family we have dealt with chronic illness for the last 15 years. We have hypothyroidism, and Polycystic Kidney Disease in the family. PKD was the first diagnosis and I remember that the only book I could find at the time regarding what I could do had to do with diet. It basically stated that a plant based diet was the best nutrition for our body. It also recommended that as many chemicals and additives that we could eliminate from our diets and lives the better. Our bodies might not only last longer but we would feel happier doing so.
Diet For a Small Planet written 40 years ago addressed the arguments by Crammer above. Many others have written since then. It is not just the “rich” who can eat healthy. That is a rumor fueled by business interest. There is a direct link between hunger in the world and the commercialization of our food system. Frances Moore Lappe, the author of 16 books on the subject states that it is “a shortage of democracy not food that causes hunger”.
I would also add that there is a lack of knowledge about food in general. One of the first things I had to do was literally get my pans out of the sandbox where my children played with them and back into the kitchen for me to play with. I am still playing and still learning about food.
15 years later we are all vegetarians. We all feel good today. Today is a good day. Thank you for continuing the conversation.

By: phdinparenting

phdinparenting — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:13:54 +0000

@ Rob A: Canada's Organic Products Regulations come into force in June 2009 (speaking of which, I should blog about them). However, there have been standards in place for longer than that and much of the industry tends to follow those. There is some background here: Canada Organic Standard and Regulation.

By: Rob A

Rob A — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:55:37 +0000

I am not sure if it is the case in Canada, but the organic label in the UK means that the farmer has met certain standards. These standards don’t mean they have used no chemicals, but that they have used only those that are approved by the certification body.

So it is possibe to have food that’s better than organic, and I think your list includes some of them, for example, if you grow your own veg with no artificial fertilisers and pesticides.

By: Affordability of Healthy Foods | PhD in Parenting

Affordability of Healthy Foods | PhD in Parenting — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:03:26 +0000

[...] The Heart and Stroke Foundation put together a guide on shopping and cooking on a budget that has some great tips for getting more out of your food budget to go along with its general guide on healthy eating. If you try to buy organic, but find it expensive, you might also be interested in my post Organic on the Cheap! 10 Strategies. [...]

By: crammer

crammer — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:31:38 +0000

agree with you and we buy organic when we can and get veggies delivered through CSA. however, pesticides (and by extension, fertilizers and other industrial farming techniques) are increasingly difficult to live without, especially if we (humans in developed countries) want to maintain our current lifestyle – there are ever more people to feed in the world and less arable land to cultivate it on: it is much more profitable to turn it into parking lots or sprawling burbs. buying local helps self-reliance which is is only one component to a healthy economy (N.Korea takes it to the extreme and the people live and die with routine famine).
side note: i predict, over the next 2 or three generations, a return to a class-based society, where the rich can afford to buy a variety of healthy foods necessary to build the brains and braun necessary to succeed in life, while the poor eat mass-produced empty foods (even “produce” that looks and feels like real veggies) to survive. We currently make a lot of our own food (due to multiple food allergies) but if we could hire domestics, we would. Sad to think, but their rates should be reasonably cheap again in our kids lifetimes.

By: phdinparenting

phdinparenting — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 01:25:28 +0000

Jay,

That is certainly what the pesticide industry would like us to believe, isn’t it?

First of all, as I mentioned in my post, pesticide residue on food is only one of many many many reasons for choosing organic foods over conventional agriculture. There are many other health, environmental, economical and ethical reasons for choosing organic over conventional foods.

Second, while I do worry about the effect of pesticides on my health and my family’s health, I also worry about the effects of pesticides on the environment. So even if your assertion that could just “wash them off” of our food was true, I would still not want to buy foods that came from pesticide using farms because of what they are doing to the environment.

While I have better things to do than to spend my evening refuting comments coming from obviously biased sources, I’ll provide just a sample of links that I came across with a quick Google search:

http://www.ota.com/organic/benefits/nutrition.html
http://www.organicfood-benefits.com/
http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf/Living/10reasons.html
http://www.greenearthorganics.com/tenreasons.asp
http://www.organicconsumers.org/organic/polyphenolics031203.cfm
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/susagri/susagri018.htm

By: Jay

Jay — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:45:24 +0000

Paying more for organic products is a scam. There is no legitimate research to prove that fruits and veggies pick up pesticides thru their roots. And you can merely wash off the produce before you eat it. Don’t pay a dime more! Big scam