When you really should lay down the extra bucks for organics.

[CornField]

A friend asked me to do some research on the topic of when it most matters to purchase organic fruits and vegetables. The article below is the end result.

It is often difficult to justify the extra money for organic produce. When you are standing in the market in front of the strawberries, both organic and non-organic varieties look the same and often smell the same (to our industrialized nostrils). There are certain fruits and vegetables which take larger pesticide hits when grown conventionally.

If given a choice, always spend the extra money to purchase organic on the following items which have the highest levels of pesticides (according to the EWG):

Strawberries
Apples
Peaches
Spinach
Nectarines
Celery
Cherries
Potatoes
Pears
Sweet Bell Peppers
Imported Grapes
Raspberries

The least pesticide contaminated foods, grown conventionally, are:

Sweet Corn
Pineapples
Cauliflower
Mangoes
Avocados
Sweet Peas
Asparagus
Broccoli
Bananas
Onions
Papayas
Kiwis

One of the reasons organic costs more is that its processes are more time-consuming. Organic farming employs the labor-intensive techniques of crop rotation and crop covering (planting coverage plants between the rows), and the use of manure and compost as fertilizer.

According to the EWG, Americans can lower their pesticide exposure by 90 percent by avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables.

A great way to find organics in your area is through CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Visit the CSA web site - http://www.csacenter.org/ - and located CSA's in your area of the country.

Another good source is your local farmer's market. Not all produce offered at farmer's markets is organically grown, but a great deal is. To locate one near you: http://www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/map.htm

For more information about organics and the overall contamination of the environment, visit EWG: http://www.ewg.org/

[TeeYiYi]

1. The flavor is better . . .

. . . and anymore, it seems that the prices are leveling out. I bought organic baby carrots last night at a local grocery chain and I paid $1.50 for a one pound bag. Organics are sweeter and you don't always have to go to a specialty health food store to find them.

Thanks for the list CornField. :thumbsup:

TYY

[XemaSab]

2. Thanks for the info

Have you read "The Botany of Desire" by Michael Pollan?

Quote from a large potato farmer in Idaho:

"I'm not sure I should be saying this, but I always plant a small area of potatoes without any chemicals. By the end of the season, my field potatoes are fine to eat, but any potatoes I pulled today are probably full of systemics (pesticides). I don't eat them."

Yikes! The dude doesn't eat potatoes he grows, because he KNOWS what's in them!

[CornField]

3. Yes and it gets a little worse each year

Pesticides have been sprayed so much and so often during the growing seasons that they now reside in the soil. When they are sprayed again, it's almost like a double-dose to what it was when the farmer first began spraying.

[SnowGoose]

4. Loved that book.

Made me see a few things differently.

[MountainLaurel]

7. Farmers know

And animals do too:

In reading about GM foods, I was amazed by the number of stories from farmers who tried to feed their livestock GM grain, and the animals just weren't going for it. If the farmer laid out two troughs: one with regular grain and one with GM, the animals would ONLY eat the non-GM feed.

[Richard D]

5. A really important reason for going organic

Figure out how much money you spend on food a week. Multiply that by 52. That's how much money you spend on food in a year. Multiply that by 10, to get a ten year total. We have the opportunity of having every penny of that going to support family farmers and those who give a damn enough about the earth to take care of it instead of poisoning it. Or it could be a donation to multi-national corporations whose sole concern is their bottom line and who gleefully rape and poison the remaining fertile fields and enslave third world citizens for cheap farm labor.

Quite a choice, no?

[wicket]

6. Farmer's markets is where it's at

The big one near me starts up this weekend, I can't wait!!! :)

[GumboYaYa]

8. We have a community farmer that we partner with.

A group in my neighborhood pays him $250 per person each spring and each of us commits to 40 hours of farm work over the summer. For that we get all the fresh vegetables that we can eat. I supplement that with a couple of plots in our community garden and my own home garden plot. We can and freeze as much of the excess as possible to save over the winter months.

I strongly recommend the community farmer approach. You save money, directly help a family farmer, get better produce, and build a sense of community with your neighbors.