Everywhere you look these days you turn and see something else advertising organic food. Big billboards with giant veggies or maybe a bus driving by with ads on the side.
If you want to know more they have websites you can go to or a book you could read. You can find all this information out and some people get really into it, but the thing that turns me off about organic food is the price!!!
This is something that a lot of people are advertising as "a way to healthy living" but with the economy the way it is, do these people really think I am going to spend, sometimes up to 4 times as much money, for a product because it is organic?
Next time you go to your local market look at some of the prices of organic grown food products. It is outrageous, Don't get me wrong I am a big organic food fan, I love the whole idea of it. I just don't like how they tell me all the crap that's in my food, which if you knew what it was, you'd be lining up at the market to buy organic, while the stores make the price so high that it makes health freaks go bankrupt.
Luckily I am not in the health freak category, I just eat healthy as much as I can. Many people have heard of organic food, but If so many people have heard of it and know the benefits of it then why are so many people still eating "unhealthy" as the health freaks are calling it? I wonder how many average working class families buy mainly organic grown/made products on a regular basis?
Do you buy organic foods? If not, what's holding you back?
Comments (29)
I agree, organic is often expensive (in France either). Going into a shop enterily devoted to organic produce is so disturbing most f the time. I sometimes go to "Biocoop" (french bio shop) to buy grains because it's the only shop where I can find épeautre or rice's flakes, as well tofu sausages or gluten to make my setan... (yes vegetarian). But in fact, grains are not really expensive, as well as some local products (you don't have to pay a lot for transport, so cheaper !).
I also like to go on market to get local products often organic. Organic carrot cost around 3 euros/kg, while a the public market on saturday morning it is around 1,5... Shop are making huge profits !
Best solution? Growing our vegetables and fruits ! It's the most expensive thing (in France, for a vegetarian).
the reason organic foods are more expensive is because the demand is lower and it costs more to produce/ship.
if more people bought organic, the demand would rise, and small farms would gain momentum etc and organic food would become more affordable for everybody.
i try to buy organic, but i still live with my parents so they can buy whatever they want. they know i want organic foods, so sometimes they buy organic. i, personally, buy mostly organic foods.
i usually buy items from the dirty dozen (top contaminated foods like peaches, meat/poultry, eggs, dairy, etc) organic. Things like bananas however, I buy at the regular supermarket. You should also check out your local farmers market, which usually sells fruit/veggies that haven't been sprayed with pesticides at a more affordable price.
I have a number of reasons for not buying organic foods. See my comments in this Healthkicker post.
@PenaltyLife@xanga - I agree with what she said.
I buy organic when I can. The places I shop the organic stuff is not much more expensive than the regular fruits and veggies, but the people that shop there tend to buy organic stuff.
I buy organic meat and dairy products most of the time. For fruits and veggies, it really depends on how much more expensive the organic stuff is.
Lately, I have been experimenting with growing my own veggies so it is organic and cheap.
organic food is nasty.. i love the taste of the chemicals they put in food.
when they say organic blueberry poptarts, they actually mean organic cardboard with barf filling.
so screw you organic food.. screw you.
@HollowTendencies@xanga - lol
I buy organic as often as I can afford to. I agree about the prices, though. They suck, but to me, it's worth it.
true. organic is pricey and who knows if its really organic. im looking forward to days when organic will be cheaper or 99cents. waiting waiting waiting...
Organic food is not always more expensive. Some of it is, some of it is comparable, and some of it is actually cheaper than the conventional version.
I buy organic (and local) when possible because it's better for the environment and better for our health. Plus, a lot of it just tastes better (compare an organic banana to a conventional one and taste the difference!).
I heard that farmers often go organic for one year to get the label and reputation (and more money), but are usually not inspected for subsequent years and go back to normal farming methods because it's cheaper. There isn't enough regulation to keep all the organic farmers constantly true to their label, so who knows if the food you're eating is actually organic or not.
I don't go out of my way to eat organic.
If I see something that's organic and it's semi-cheap, I'll buy it.
Nope.. :X
Usually if you're to buy $0.50lb bananas vs $0.75lb organic (and fewer portions) hrrm.. :X
I dont really believe in the whole organic thing. I think its just a marketing ploy to make people spend 3 x as much bc they thinks its healthier...maybe it is..who really knows
This is why I like places like Farmer's Markets & such in the summertime. it helps with the whole price issue. I shop when prices are low, freeze what I can, and buy in season, it helps a little with the price issue. I don't buy all organic all the time, but I do buy organic when I can.
I don't buy organic foods... because yeah, they are more expensive =p
The only "organic" foods I do eat are the vegetables in my mom's garden~
organic food is not necessarily healthier. it just means that in most cases no chemical fertilizer or pesticides have been used in producing the food. that doesn't always make it healthier. the main reason that our food is not as healthy as it used to be is the processing, bleaching, etc. unprocessed food is healthier, organic or not.
we've researched for decades to produce food more effectively and it often require chemicals to improve the food's quality and resistance to pests. growing organic food means wasting years of research efforts. growing organic food requires more resource, e.g. water, land, etc. and yields less crops. organic food is more expensive because it's not effective. it's defintely because of low demand. in fact demand is high because most people are misled into believing that organic food is healthier. price will go up only when demand is higher than supply and it's difficult to increase the supply of organic food. if all food must be produced organically, we'll all starve to death. there're just too many mouths to feed these days. americans might not notice but people are already starving to death elsewhere on earth.
It's dangerous to assume, like you do, that organic food is "healthy" and "good" as absolute truths that maybe equivalent of gravitational laws. But I can't deny the fact that organic food is way better than mass produced industrial food for a variety of reasons, including social, environmental and health impacts.
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."
I buy whatever is cheapest. If organic is on sale to the point where it's cheapest, then I'll buy it. If not, then no.
I do buy organic when I can. Many things you can just read the label and find relatively cheap stuff in normal stores. Example: Applesauce. I don't see the point in buying organic applesauce.
I stop in when I can to check for sales and look for manufacturers coupons. Great to use when something is already on sale. It can make it cheaper than the normal foods.
A lot of fruits and veggies you don't really need to buy organic. You can find a lot of lists online. Google away.
Farmer's markets are great for cheap organic products.
I eat less when I eat organic. Makes sense to me to eat it.
No idea if most of this comment is in any way relevant.
Are organic foods better than the non-organic kind? Probably. If you only eat organic instead of the alternative, will you live a year or two longer than if you hadn't? Probably.
But that year or two of life is a reward that is so far ahead of us it's basically not even thought of. We are lazy. We like immediate rewards, and when we can save a couple of bucks now vs a year of life at the end, we're going to choose those couple of bucks now.
Organic foods cost more because they cost more to produce. What would the difference in bills be if you bought organic vs non-organic? Would it really be impossible to buy organic due to your budget?
I buy non-organic. I'm no different, I'll take the couple of bucks now :)
i think organic is good. but i dont like organic milk for some reason. we get the half gallon cartons from costco and they just taste funny. supposedly it's cuz i'm 'used to the taste of hormones' but i rather doubt that but if it's the case, bring on them hormones cuz my cereal is a whole lot better with em
organic is not that much more expensive where i live...
i knew what that factor was before reading your blog. definitely the price.
@PenaltyLife@xanga - that is true! i havent thought about it that way. only if there was some way to get everyone to purchase organic food all of a sudden, it'd be really awesome.
in terms of nutrition, organic food is rarely better than things that aren't organic. sometimes they're worse.
in terms of pesticides and stuff, fruit is one thing. but fruit is already so damn expensive that you'd have to pull your arm off to pay for organic fruit. plus some things aren't worth buying organic and you're just wasting your money, like bananas. you're not eating the skin of a banana so what difference does it make if it's organic or not?