Your Turn: How often do you eat organic?

by Martha Edwards (Subscribe to Martha Edwards's posts)
Mar 25th 2008 3:23PM

There are lots of good reasons to eat organic--your health and the health of your family being the most important one. But there are also a few good reasons to not eat organic--it's expensive, it can be difficult to find, and when you do find organic products, the choices are sometimes limited compared to the non-organic brands.

Myself, I eat organic about 65% of the time. I live in a big city and it's not difficult to find organic choices, but cost is sometimes a factor, so I stick to buying organic for the important items--the fruits and veggies, the meats and some of the dairy products.

But I'm curious -- what about you?

Comments (5)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Judy 3-25-2008 @ 5:36PM

I voted "other." There are certain things I almost always get organic - milk, soy milk, yogurt, beef - but when it comes to fruits and veggies not so much. I've been trying to pay attention to those lists of "most contaminated produce" but forget, and if my husband buys the groceries he doesn't worry about it at all.

I've just decided to try and grow a little backyard veggie garden, and plant some herbs and things in the front where I can, and so that will be pretty darn organic and locally grown right there! Now if I can just get past my black thumbs.

marcie0305 3-25-2008 @ 11:39PM

I voted "pretty often, not fanatical" -- there are certain foods I try to always eat organic, for me these are mostly fruits and veggies :) In particular, if you're going to eat the skin, esp. if it is waxed, avoid "mainstream" (think apples, pears, cucumbers, etc.) The other side would be bananas - no need to buy organic there, IMO. I wrote a lot about this here:

http://feedingblackmail.blogspot.com/2007/09/cheap-food-or-expensive-organic-is.html

Particularly useful is the Consumer Reports article linked in on that page :)

Although I do not eat cow, if forced, I would highly prefer grass-fed organic. You are what you eat, after all, and that goes for the cow (or chicken or pig) as well.

Judy: good for you for growing a garden, that truly is the ultimate in organic and local!!

~Marcie

Judy 3-25-2008 @ 11:39PM

Marcie, I only eat cow (love how you also call it cow - I almost always say that, including when I eat the occasional, as in maybe once a year, steak, or "hunk of dead cow") a few times a year. Our entire family of 4 might eat 10 pounds a year, but I bet it's closer to half that. I do eat dairy, and don't get organic cheese, because it's so expensive and hard to find!

I'd like to eat more organic fruits and veggies, and now that we are getting some of our debt paid off, I'm hoping we'll be able to! My 4 yo is very excited at the idea of a garden. Let's hope it keeps up.

marcie0305 3-26-2008 @ 10:02PM

Judy - :) I think words like "pork", "beef", "chops" and "steak" are interesting - we don't use any substitute words to describe other foods. I think these were early clever marketing terms to make us feel better about eating - cow or pig. It's something I think about a lot.

alf 3-31-2008 @ 3:55AM

I don't buy organic as it has no real advantage over standard food (and I'm too much of a greenie to justify having to devote more land to agriculture that organic farming requires).

Organic foods uses pesticides just like conventional farming, except that those pesticides are less effective (because they are "natural", just like hemlock), so a lot more is used. The contents of a tomato is contained in its DNA, not in the farming used.