Organic vs. Non-organic

I buy organic produce. It's less about preservatives and more about pesticides. In my opinion, in addition to being better for me (due to lack of pesticides), I think organic farming is better for the environment in general. Also, while I'm not a vegetarian, I eat more veggies than anything else -- so I don't like the idea of ingesting all those pesticides if I don't need to.

I also think organic milk is a good idea to avoid hormones and antibiotics in my milk.

I shop at Whole Foods for produce and most of my other groceries, and at Randalls (a Safeway chain) for a few other things.

Don't forget to look at labels. Many products out there will use organic ingredients but don't go to the expense of becoming certified.

http://www.roanoke.com/living/food/frontburner/1923078-12/how-the-dirty-dozen-and-clean-fifteen-can.html

That talks about the fruits and veggies and which ones you should try to go organic on and which ones you shouldn't need to. I try to go to a local produce store that gets everything locally or I go to local farmers markets.

I also think organic milk is a good idea to avoid hormones and antibiotics in my milk.

Publix doesn't use hormones in their milk if you're looking for a cheaper alternative - I know I can't afford $7 for a gallon of milk every week as much as I would like to buy it.

I try hard to buy sustainable first (and that's a tough one to track down, so I'm sure my track record is moderate at best), local second and organic third.

For veggies, during the season I have a local, sustainable and organic CSA. That makes it really easy! I also visit local farmers markets for additional produce and local meats. There's a farm about 45 minutes away from my house that has an amazing sustainable infrastructure, so if we're low on meat we'll head out there once every month or two and stock up on meat to freeze.

For the rest of my shopping, I do a lot of it at a local chain health food market that only stocks organic food, so that makes it easier. They also stock a lot of local produce when it's in season, which can sometimes provide either more variety or greater reliability than the farmer's markets or CSA, if I'm looking for something in particular. It's also a lot cheaper than Whole Foods, and the people are incredibly nice. It makes grocery shopping feel like a pleasure instead of torture.

Finally, for those things which don't turn up at the organic places (I have a fondness, for example, for Bay's English Muffins--nothing organic or local about those), I do end up at the local regular grocery chain maybe once a month or so.

This is probably a more expensive way to eat than doing all my shopping at Safeway. And it takes thought, time, research and effort, along with being comfortable in the knowledge that I'm only doing better, not perfect. But I do feel like I'm treating myself, my family, the environment and our local food producers in a respectful, healthier way. And the more time I spend reading food labels at Safeway, the less money I want to spend buying that kind of food.

I buy organic produce. It's less about preservatives and more about pesticides. In my opinion, in addition to being better for me (due to lack of pesticides), I think organic farming is better for the environment in general. Also, while I'm not a vegetarian, I eat more veggies than anything else -- so I don't like the idea of ingesting all those pesticides if I don't need to.

I also think organic milk is a good idea to avoid hormones and antibiotics in my milk.

I shop at Whole Foods for produce and most of my other groceries, and at Randalls (a Safeway chain) for a few other things.

Organic does not mean they do not use pesticides the farmers still use pesticides they just have to use certain pesticides one they can use is well known Nicotine. Source http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/CoopExt/4DMG/VegFruit/organic.htm

You may think that organic is better for the environment probably not since organic produce is transported as far if not further then conventionally grown produce, organic produce is even transported 1/2 way across the world from places like China to get to you. Organic farming is less efficient due to crop loss and reduced yields which means that more land has to be cultivated to produce the same amount of food, which equals more machinery used and more pollution produced from that machinery. If the entire worlds food supply was produced using organic standards billions of people would need to die because the world could not mathematically produce enough food to feed the population.

Organic > Non-organic.