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Conscientious Cook: What Should You Buy Organic?

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Here's the scenario: you're trying to stick to a pretty tight food budget, but you're also conscientious about the food you buy. You can only afford to buy one or two organic items a week. What do you buy? And just as importantly, why?

 
 

There's a lot of conflicting opinions out there about which products are truly best to buy organic. One group says that you should only ever buy organic milk, another group says potatoes, yet another pushes organic beef. Sometimes the reason is to avoid pesticides or additives, sometimes it's because the conventional way has such a negative environmental impact.

On a limited budget, how do you choose?

We think that the best way to decide which organic products you should buy is to take a look at your diet. If you can consistently afford to buy one organic product a week, buy the product that you eat the most. If you drink a gallon of milk a week, make it organic milk. If you eat a ton of fruits and vegetables, figure out which you eat the most and buy those organically. This will have the biggest impact on both your overall health and your buying power as a consumer.

Here are a few resources explaining the differences between some organic and conventional products:

FAQ's about Organic Milk from the National Dairy Council
The Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen Fruits and Vegetables from the Environmental Working Group
Full List of Fruits and Vegetables by Ranked by Pesticide Load from the Environmental Working Group
Organic Meat: The Easy Choice from the Organic Report
National Organic Program Homepage from the USDA

What foods do you buy organic and why?

Related: Five Easy Ways to Go Organic

(Image: Flickr member D Sharon Pruitt licensed under Creative Commons)

posted originally from: TheKitchn

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Comments (3)

I buy everything I can organic, except when I have a choice between pesticide free local or organic from somewhere far away. In that case local wins.
I figure you only live once and it's a privilege to eat such good food everyday. I think it's worth every penny. I save money by making lots of things from scratch, buying seasonally, buying dry goods in bulk from a food co-op, and growing my own veg in the summer. I also save by not buying meat (just the odd fish). Hilariously, people think I suffer. Real suffering is paying $15 in a restaurant for salad in a bag, covered in tomatoes picked by a kid in South America four weeks ago, topped with corn syrup and hydrogenated gmo soy oil 'dressing'. Gross.
Despite my so-called extravagant choices, I still only spend 10-15% of my income on food (a grad student income, no less) which is a dream for people in most parts of the world.

posted by ilovealbertabeets on May 26th 2009 at 7:47am
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I buy all my grains etc organic, and while I am currently using up non-organic legumes that my mom passed my way, I usually buy those organic too. Dried bulk foods are already cheap, why not just pay a few more cents.

I ALWAYS buy organic lemons if I plan on zesting, I never eat a non-organic banana due to the extreme pesticide use and low wages on most banana plantations (pesticides that cause severe neurological damage upon contact are still used in many large company plantations in South America- the pesticides have been banned in the US and Canada for years!)
I also tend to buy organic kiwi (I eat the peels) and other items that I eat the skin of.
Leafy greens are ALWAYS organic. They are 100% surface area, it doesn't make sense to me not to buy these organic.

My first goal however, with many items, is to buy local. Many local growers are not certified organic, yet they might follow primarily organic procedures, but cannot afford the certification, or the seeds they started with were not organic (it takes 2 years after organic seeds are started to call the crop organic). Ask, and you might be surprised. If not, the fact that many of the worst pesticides are banned here in North America should give you some ease, as well as the fact you know that the farmers are getting fair prices.

There are also many nutrient benefits to eating local, and the food might help you live better in your environment!

posted by Nolann on May 26th 2009 at 12:19pm
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Some of the highest pesticide use is on strawberries, celery, bananas, and brussels sprouts. It makes sense to buy organic for these. Fruits and veggies with skins that get peeled and not eaten like citrus and avocado aren't so important.

However I agree with ilovealbertabeets. There's expensive and then there's expensive food. Stay out of restaurants and prepare more food at home, buy in bulk if you can and shop farmer's markets; you'll be able to afford more organic quality food!

posted by linbo on May 28th 2009 at 6:46am
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