eat more organic

Now that we are deep into spring and summer is coming up, I find more organic products available. Getting back to basics in my diet has helped, and I can shop for simple foods, pay a little more but consume less. I am not totally organic yet. I am fully switched over to vegetables, dairy, sprouts, teas and flours. Halfway on fruits and meats. Not at all on snacks.

Everything I see, read, or hear about eating organic makes it seem like the only smart thing to do, and when you begin to look at the possibility of eating organic, seasonally, and locally, you feel like you can have a real impact on the community around you. When I read that the US exports 1.4 million tons of potatoes at the same time it imports 1.1 million tons of potatoes, and that crabbers off Alaska ship crabs to China and China ships crabs to the US, and that French cornichon growers are going out of business because French companies can buy cornichons cheaper from India, and that watermelons and asparagus available here in January were grown and shipped from 1,500 miles south, in another hemisphere, I cannot take my casual trips to the grocery store for granted anymore. I think in small steps I will begin to break myself of the mold the big producers have pressed us into, and make better choices focusing on organic, sustainable, fair trade, seasonal and local foods.

Everywhere I go conventional foods are less expensive than organics. I know some of the reasons whey this is so, but it doesn’t help my wallet. So I’ll begin by accepting that on some things, I have to spend more, but buy and consume less, and use more effectively.