Sense to Save: Other Blog

Organic foods and me

For the longest time, I never gave much thought to organic foods. I’d see them in the supermarket, look at their price, and grab a conventional item instead. “Why pay more?” I thought.

But several things have come onto my radar as of late that have shown me the true cost of conventional foods. And it ain’t pretty.

Perhaps it all started when Johnny was old enough for solid foods. I knew that we had to be careful with what we gave his little body. Sugars and fake foods and produce with crazy pesticides would have a much stronger impact on a growing baby, so I set out to make sure what he ate was actually good for him. We’ve had some slip-ups, for sure.

A few weeks ago, we viewed “Food Inc.” (available streaming on Netflix, if you have it!). Truly eye opening, and mostly geared toward meats and items fed to livestock and poultry, and corporate farming practices.

I was horrified at what I saw — horrible, unsanitary living conditions for the animals, gross mistreatment of the workers, and disgusting ways of harvesting/processing meats.

I learned that in one conventional hamburger, I could be eating the meat from 1,000 different cows. No wonder when there’s a beef recall, it’s so wide-spread. You could have one sick cow and it can contaminate so much!

The widespread use of antibiotics and growth hormones are not good things for these animals or us.

Some chicken feed is laced with antibiotics and arsenic. Hi, that is a poison. Also, during processing, chicken is routinely doused with bleach. How is that a good idea?

So after viewing Food Inc., we switched to only antibiotic-free/hormone-free beef and chicken. I found a grocery here that sells regional Amish chicken for a reasonable price, and good ground beef for $2.19/lb if you buy 5 lbs. So really, there’s no good reason for me to continue buying conventional meats.

I wanted to learn more about eating whole foods (that is, foods that are just plain food — no genetically modified produce, no chemically engineered “food” products) and organic foods. I picked up some books at the library and did some blog searching.

A friend suggested I view “The Future of Food” which is available for free on Hulu. This film had some similar info as presented in Food Inc., but it was more geared toward produce/grains for human consumption.

Also, last week I attended a class about whole foods (and next week is part 2). I learned that there is no testing or regulations on how food chemicals interact. So how can I know that if I take Food Additive 1 and combine it with Food Additive 2 and know that these two won’t have a dangerous reaction? I can’t know this! The data isn’t there.

I don’t want to be a science experiment.

So we’re cutting out artificially created “foods.” It isn’t going to be an instant change, but I know it will be a worthwhile one.

And what’s so great about organic produce, vs. conventional?

Well, a lot. Organic farmers have to follow strict guidelines to be certified organic. I’m choosing it whenever possible because I believe it will be more nutritious (and have more minerals — the mineral content of food depends on the soil it grew in). There’s no genetically modified foods. There’s no sewage sludge fertilizer or ionizing radiation (how scary is THAT stuff?!).

I don’t want to eat things like that. And I don’t want to support companies that expose their workers to that kinda junk.

If we put junk into our bodies, then it makes sense that we’ll get a junky output.

I’m not going to say no to convenience food (just yet, anyway). But, I am going to be picky about it’s ingredients. No fake food. Nothing engineered or modified in any way. Just plain regular FOOD. And if its organic, so much the better.

For added nutrition and cost savings, I’m going to make some more things from scratch. It might take a little more time, but I can do thinks in bulk and it’ll be easier.

I’ve got a while to go before I have this thing figured out, but it’s something I HAVE to do.

I can’t just forget the things that I’ve learned. I can’t just say, “Well, whatever. Organics cost more, and it’s more effort to go after that kinda food.”

I have found that if I shop at the right places, the cost difference isn’t much, if anything at all. And some things I will end up spending more money on.

To me, it’s worth paying more money now and eating better than it is to pay a little less and have weird health problems on down the road.