It might seem paradoxical to think that you could spend significantly more money at the grocery store and come out spending less money overall, but you can. Take a look!
Organic food is better for you and definitely is better for the environment. What does organic mean? (Because it says it more succinctly than I probably can), Wikipedia tells us that, “Organic foods are produced according to certain production standards, meaning they are grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives.[1] Livestock are reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones. In most countries, organic produce must not be genetically modified.”
Basically, they are grown without man-made chemicals or literally, humans’ “crap”. Increasingly, these chemicals are seen as harmful to humans, especially when ingested or breathed in from the air. When you buy organic, you are literally reducing demand for non-organic foods and increasing demand for organic ones. By using your buying power to say something, you are having a positive influence on your society’s envirohuman impact. Your dollars will less and less support pollution.
How much more expensive is organic? That all depends on the product and the store. Whole Foods tends to carry mostly organic products but the saying goes, “Whole Foods, whole paycheck.” I shop at Whole Foods and make some smart decisions about what to buy there and what to get elsewhere. They do offer price drops on specific products for a week or more at a time, so look to see if products you would like to buy drop in price and then stock up on them when they’re cheaper. Your city or town probably has a natural foods store, so go try them out or go to a farmers’ market!
How do the numbers work out? If you choose five products you were already buying and change to organic counterparts, you would probably spend $5-$10 more to buy the organic ones. Then, if you add three or four more organic fruit and vegetable products that you were not buying before but are going to add into your diet, you will spend out the balance of the $20 (do the math to keep your spending near $20).
Organics do not have the chemicals included that the non-organic options typically have. These chemicals are increasingly seen as bad for habitats, runoff damages marine and freshwater habitats, and the more man-made petrochemicals in our environment, the more toxic it is overall. In our bodies, these chemicals can act as endocrine interrupters and over time, can be toxic and disease-causing.
But it’s $20 every week! Yes, this is a weekly $20 expense (that adds up to savings!). How often do you eat out or order food delivered to your home? If the answer is a few times a week, by cooking more meals at home, you are easily coming up with savings.
Ordering pizza just once often comes up to a $20 tab, once you’ve included tip. You spend time ordering, doing nothing instead of being active because, “It just left and will be there in ten minutes,” they keep telling you. You’re already out shopping, so the time increase will be less than twenty minutes as you choose your products. Replace that pizza with organic vegetables, a piece of organic chicken breast, served over organic brown rice.
Don’t know how to cook? Many people don’t, but learning can be easy. Cookbooks and classes are readily available. But you want a free option? Fine. Go online and read recipes at allrecipes.com or a host of other recipe and cooking websites.
By buying and consuming organic products, you are helping insure both the health of the environment, and your own. Keeping yourself healthy can be a great investment of time and money, as well, because hospital stays and being bed ridden can be very costly. A healthier lifestyle helps to keep you going free of disease and complications (of course, no guarantees).
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September 5th, 2008 at 9:45 am
We agree! They say that what they do to rice is so OMG bad for you. So if you buy nothing else organic, buy rice organic. And, we will also add that white rice is not only stripped of all fiber and nutrients, likely to cause colon cancer, but it also has no flavor. All we buy anymore is organic brown rice. And, we will also add that, as unkie Wesley knows, Lola says organic chicken is lip smackin’ good!
September 5th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Hello Leilani and Lola!