Sustainable Thursday

My apologies for being a day late. Some other writing had my attention for most of the day yesterday.

I was pondering what to write about this week and I thought since I talked about eggs and animal welfare in factory farming last week, I should talk about farming of fruits and veggies this week.

In a perfect world, all of our food would be raised locally, humanely and organically. I personally hope that some day that is how it is. But in the meantime, we are faced with dozens of choices on what to buy and what to put into our bodies each and every time we enter a supermarket.

There is also a lot of conflicting information out there about our food and it's sources and organic vs. non organic. Should we spend the extra for organic or not? That is always the question that I wrestle with. My mind is telling me one thing, but my checkbook is telling me something else. If I buy all organic I will get enough food for my family for about 3 days vs. a week if I buy non organic. So what is the average person to do?

Personally I try to go by the Dirty Dozen. You may have seen this list elsewhere as it has been published over and over again, but I think it is a really good place to start if you want to start switching to organic. I think dairy and the Dirty Dozen list are probably the easiest way to start. In case you haven't seen it before, here it is again.

The dirty dozen below have the highest levels of pesticides when grown conventionally. The thin skins on many of them make it easy for pesticides to penetrate to the food and impossible for us to wash away the chemicals. Opt for USDA certified organics of these foods and you're ensuring your salad wasn't raised using man-made chemical pesticides, fossil fuel or sewage-based fertilizers or genetically-modified seeds.

apples
sweet bell peppers
carrots
celery
cherries
grapes (imported)
kale
lettuce
nectarines
peaches
pears
strawberries

If you are unable to afford these items in your local grocery store,try going to your local farmer's market where the prices are often lower than the grocery store, and the farmers raise their crops using organic methods but don't opt to go through the costly and lengthy organic certification process. You can usually talk directly to the grower and get to know him and how he runs his farm. Making the switch to organic is possible if you just start slowly and shop around.