Just this morning, I had another friend ask me if eating organic was really that important. This reminded me that this is an important topic and I need to finish my little series on it. If you are just jumping in to this conversation on my blog, check out part 1 of the discussion and figure out where you are on this organic-eating journey.
To flat-out answer the question, “Do I think eating organic is important,” I would say yes. If you look at my own food choices, you would see many organic options. (Just a quick reminder though, that my personal way of eating is not the only way to eat ‘healthy’. Each person needs to work out their own healthy eating lifestyle.)
At my Farm to Plate dinner a couple of weeks ago, the farmer of Black Hog Farm reminded me of something that I have been saying for a long time: Local trumps organic. Yes, it’s true. Why? Because local food is the freshest, meaning the highest nutrient content. It also travels less time to your plate which means less preservatives are needed and less gas is used driving it around. You also have the opportunity to get personal with your food. You know the people that grow it or raise it. If you have a problem, you can go directly to them.
Many of the local growers don’t have the means to go through the organic certification process. So they may be following organic practices, but are not able to promote their items as such. But again, when you know your producer, you can just ask them about it.
So all this to say that you should take advantage of any and all local resources that you can. A dollar spent here goes directly back to the producer to continue making high quality food. This is money well spent.
Many of the farmers markets offer a plethora of affordable, local produce options. I would recommend starting here. Produce is probably the most important place to start buying organic. Forget the processed foods for now. Spend the money on the whole, real foods. I would even say this for your kids. To me, processed is processed, whether it’s organic or not. Save the extra dollar or two on conventional processed foods and put it toward your produce.
I am working on compiling my list of local produce distributors and farmers markets to post for you. Check out my “Favorite Things” page for some of these links already.
More to come in part 3. Please post questions that you have about this topic so that I can make sure to answer them.
Fresh Food Perspectives 