Whenever it’s possible and within our budget, my husband and I do often buy organic when it comes to food and home products. But do we really need to do that? Some people will only eat organic produce and meat while others consider it completely unnecessary and overpriced. Some don’t quite understand what organic means. I recall, years ago, eating some organic potato chips (not exactly healthy either, I know, but that’s another story) and offered some to a coworker. She looked at them suspiciously and said, “Hmm, are they going to give me diarrhea?” She didn’t quite understand what organic meant, and she’s probably not alone. They were essentially the same chips she normally eats but mine were made from organic potatoes and without any artificial or genetically modified (GMO) ingredients—so the lesser of the evils, I guess you could say.
What does organic mean anyway?
Our family has an “organic” potted garden in our backyard where we grow some of our own produce such as sweet potatoes, turmeric and mint leaves. We use organic soil and we plant them in pots because we know some of our neighbors have their beautiful green lawns sprayed with weed-killing chemicals and we don’t want that getting into our garden soil. I say “organic” because we don’t use any harmful fertilizers or pesticides. We make our own compost using organic egg shells and scraps of organic produce such as banana peels. We’re not selling our produce so we don’t need to be certified to prove they’re organic but we know, to the best of our knowledge, we’re growing vegetables and fruits that are free of pesticides—pure and safe for our family.
When you buy organic produce—strawberries, for example—at the grocery store, it’s going to be certified organic by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the packaging will display the well-known organic green logo. Simply put, it means those strawberries were grown organically—without the use of harmful pesticides and they were not genetically modified. With that said, it’s not actually quite that simple. The USDA has a set of standards and a farm must follow those standards in order to be certified to grow and sell organic produce. Learn more about the USDA’s organic standards. The same goes for meat, packaged foods and household items. There are standards the companies must follow to receive certification and use that organic label on the products they sell.
Keep in mind when you’re at the grocery store, you might not always see the USDA organic label, especially on individually sold organic produce. For example, the seal is often not found on organic sweet potatoes. Rather, there will be a label with a PLU number code. Organic produce is labeled with a five digit code beginning with the number nine (9). Conventional produce is labeled with a four digit code beginning with the number four (4), and GMO produce is labeled with a five digit code beginning with the number eight (8).
Why do we buy organic?
Whenever possible, our family tries to eat organic foods because it’s food in its most pure and natural form. We strive to eat the way our ancestors did before agriculture became a 100 billion dollar industry. I’ve had this discussion with a Hungarian friend who is in her 90s. She does not usually buy organic. And she has made it into her 90s with no major illnesses, and she can still walk and drive herself to the grocery store! However, we must consider that she does otherwise eat relatively well—whole foods—and she cooks her own meals. She has never smoked or drank alcohol—or even regularly drank soda. No one could argue she’s pretty darn healthy. But she also had a pretty good start in life—from a nutritional standpoint. Many people today are overfed and undernourished. My guess is she received some amazing nutrition when she was growing up in Hungary several decades ago. There wasn’t a need for any organic regulations because most produce and livestock at that time was raised on small, local farms that didn’t use (or have access to or knowledge of) the harmful pesticides and chemicals that are available today—it was essentially organic already. She ate food from her own family’s small farm. And that’s exactly the kind of food our family strives to eat today—without being farmers ourselves.
So, do you have to buy organic to be healthy? No, not necessarily. But for our family, in addition to eating whole foods and keeping our sugar consumption low as often as we can, we buy organic produce and meat when possible as another step to keep toxins out of our bodies. Unfortunately, today, it’s so much easier to get access to food that is not healthy. Even our family from time to time eats processed foods. Sometimes it’s organic and other times it’s not, but we always look at the integrity of the ingredients. Are there any artificial sweeteners or colors? Does it contain a significant amount of sugar or any genetically modified ingredients? What kinds of oils are used? We simply try to do the best we can when making decisions about what we bring into our home.
There are so many toxins we’re already exposed to in our environment that we can’t completely control—second hand smoke from the guy enjoying his cigarette outside the grocery store, the exhaust from our cars, the paint or building materials in our homes, the waft of perfume or cologne from the person passing you by in the store. These are all toxins that won’t kill us overnight but are harmful to our bodies and make us susceptible to illnesses and other ailments in the long run. By buying organic food, we are simply taking one extra step to keep out of our bodies the toxins that are found in some of our nation’s mass produced conventional produce and meat.
Though the USDA estimates organically produced food can cost 10 to 30 percent more than conventionally produced food, our family makes that financial sacrifice because we don’t go out to eat very often so our home cooked, organic meals usually cost less anyway, and watching what we put in our body helps us stay healthy so we’re ultimately saving money in medical bills in the long run. We otherwise live pretty simply and food/health is one area we can justify spending a little more—within reason. For example, when organic grapes cost $2.99/lb and conventional grapes cost $1.99/lb, we’ll buy the organic grapes. But when the organic grapes cost $7.99/lb, we simply don’t buy grapes. What we’ve found is produce—organic or conventional—is typically priced well when they’re in season and therefore plentifully available, and that’s the best time to buy them anyway—because they’re fresh, they taste better, and they’re the most nutrient dense at that time.
When do we buy organic?
According to Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of the Program in Global Public Health and the Common Good in the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society at Boston College, “Infants, babies and young children are exquisitely vulnerable to even low levels of pesticide exposure, so it’s important parents and caregivers take steps to safeguard children from these chemicals while also providing them diets rich in healthy fruits and vegetables.”
While our family is relatively extreme when it comes to health due to my husband’s journey with a digestive illness, ulcerative colitis, (our kids start out each day eating dulse flakes (for the iodine and trace minerals) and sauerkraut (not the vinegar based but the naturally fermented kind for its probiotics)), we don’t always eat organic foods due to budget and/or availability. If we’re at a social gathering, do we not eat the food because it’s not organic? No, of course not, but we do try to choose the best options available. Also, my husband suggests, “If we’re going into an unknown food situation, try not to go starving and bring healthy snacks.” Here is our family’s philosophy when it comes to eating organic:
1. For any produce that’s listed in the EWG’s “Dirty Dozen,” buy them organic.
Every year, the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration test pesticide levels in more than 43,000 samples of produce. After they have been thoroughly washed and peeled when applicable, pesticide residues are still detected on many of the fruits and vegetables. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit organization that ranks the pesticide contamination of 47 popular fruits and vegetables and provides a shopper’s guide to help families make the best choices in reducing their exposure to toxic pesticides.
At the top of the list is the produce that contains the highest levels of pesticides. For example, apples, strawberries and pears are almost always at the top every year. For produce listed in the top 12—their “Dirty Dozen,” our family only buys it if it’s organic. And when it’s available and doesn’t cost much more than the conventional version, we try to buy produce in the top half of the list organic as well. The EWG also provides a list of conventional produce that contains the lowest levels of pesticides—the “Clean Fifteen,” which we find extremely helpful, especially for our budget.
Dr. Philip Landrigan continues, “For many Americans, choosing an all-organic diet is not possible, so using EWG’s guide can help give consumers the tools to provide their families with a mix of both conventional and organic fruits and veggies without the pesticide punch.”
Get the latest EWG Shopper’s Guide.
2. For foods your family eats regularly, buy them organic.
Our family consumes an unbelievable amount of bananas, and I also often use them as the no sugar alternative in baking, so we always buy bananas organic even though they’re usually not in the EWG’s “Dirty Dozen.”
3. Stay away from mystery meat.
Some might think it’s a bit extreme, but our family usually stays away from what we call mystery meat—meat that we know absolutely nothing about—where it came from and/or how it was raised. Our family’s diet consists of mostly fruits, vegetables and organic, pasture-raised eggs, but we do enjoy the taste and health benefits found in some meats, including protein. In a perfect world, we would only buy pasture-raised, grass-fed meat from a local, organic farm because it would be the most fresh and healthy. Sometimes, we have found that a local farm is not certified organic by the USDA, perhaps because it can be costly, but its practices are similar to or even better than a large commercial farm that is USDA certified organic. But that is debatable and another story entirely so we won’t discuss that now. Though the local, certified organic farm route is the most ideal, it can be extremely costly and not as readily available. We sometimes find it available at our local farmer’s market, but more often than not, we need to go to our local grocery store for meat.
The Skinny on Antibiotic Use in Poultry and Livestock:
According to the North American Meat Institute (NAMI), these are the available options in the marketplace:
Organic — the National Organic Program (NOP) requires that livestock or poultry are never given antibiotics. When an animal becomes ill on an organic farm and requires antibiotics – an event that is not unusual – that animal is treated and sent into a conventional production system and will not bear an organic label.
‘Raised without Antibiotics’ or Similar Claim — these products are derived from animals raised without antibiotics. While this parallels organic production, these products may be derived from animals raised on farms that are not certified organic or that would not meet the NOP standards for other reasons.
Conventional (no special claims) — may be derived from livestock or poultry given antibiotics for treatment, control, or prevention of disease, but a waiting period must pass before that animal is processed.
We all need to do what’s best for our family but this is our family’s philosophy when buying meat from our local grocery store:
Poultry: At the very least, we look for the USDA organic logo and try to stick with the whole chicken or whole pieces such as wings, drum sticks or breasts rather than ground meat. We have found that even if it is USDA certified organic and raised without the use of antibiotics, ground poultry can come from several different chickens from several different farms. Though it’s probably a low risk, this does put us at risk should there be a problem of contamination with salmonella or E-coli. If you choose not to buy organic, however, chicken is probably the best option of all other meats. According to the National Chicken Council, no artificial or added hormones are used in the production of any poultry in the United States, organic or not, and if antibiotics are used to treat sick chickens, the FDA and USDA have extensive monitoring and testing programs to make sure that food at the grocery store does not contain harmful antibiotic residues. With that said, however, our family chooses to only buy chicken that was never raised with antibiotics—only if it’s organic—or we simply don’t buy chicken.
Beef/Steak: Our family doesn’t consume much red meat, but when we do, we look for the “cleanest” option. Again, the meat would ideally be from a local, organic farm that doesn’t use antibiotics and allows its livestock to roam free on a large pasture (pasture-raised), but if you’re buying from a local grocery store, we look for the USDA organic label at the least and in addition, that it’s also pasture-raised and grass-fed.
Pasture-raised refers to where the animal eats (a pasture) while grass-fed refers to what the animal eats (grass). The USDA, for example, requires that cows spend a minimum of 120 days on pasture during the grazing season to be considered pasture-raised. A grass-fed claim requires that the farm meets or exceeds the USDA’s organic standards for the percentage of the cows’ diet made up of fresh grass during grazing season. The remainder of their diet can be made up of dried forages and/or grains. Furthermore, there is 100% grass-fed and Certified Grass-Fed Organic, which mean the cows only eat grasses, forages and approved nutritional supplements—no grains.
Similar to poultry, our family also tries to stay away from ground red meat unless it’s pasture-raised and grass-fed from an organic farm, and the source is clearly labeled. What we’ve found is ground beef, even if USDA certified organic, can come from several different cows from several different countries. Again, that puts us at greater risk when there is an issue of contamination. It’s also not as fresh because it traveled from afar.
Pork: At least in our area, we don’t often find USDA certified organic pork readily available so we don’t consume much of it. We do from time to time enjoy bacon, ideally from a local farm with clean, ethical practices, but most often, we’ll buy uncured, no-nitrate-added bacon at our local grocery store from a company such as Applegate, which provides meat products that are humanely raised with no antibiotics nor contain any GMO ingredients. If you’re going to eat bacon, it’s the lesser of the evils, we often say.
4. Buy organic dairy.
For similar reasons our family only buys organic meat, we also buy dairy only if it’s organic at a minimum. Ideally, eggs would be certified organic and pasture-raised, but it can be extremely costly—I’ve seen up to almost $10 for a dozen eggs so sometimes we opt for simply a certified organic option, which is usually somewhere between $3.99 and $5.99 per dozen. We usually steer clear of eggs that claim to be “cage-free” but not organic because the farming practices just aren’t the same as if they were organic and/or pasture-raised. (We’ll go over this further as part of a future discussion.) The same goes for yogurt in our family. We sometimes buy the Organic Valley grass milk yogurt and other times, we buy Stonyfield’s organic whole milk yogurt. When it comes to milk, our family only consumes coconut milk (for cooking and baking) or raw goat milk, but that is also for a future discussion. For those who do consume cow milk, choosing organic is the only way to ensure the milk is from a healthy cow that was never given any antibiotics or hormones—if that matters to your family. You could even take it a step further and buy organic, grass-fed, whole milk. Of course, that’s the most costly option.
The bottom line is we need to do what’s important to and best for our families and within our budgets. Do you buy organic food? Share with us your personal philosophy!
