Inconsistently Organic
Posted by hope on April 18, 2008
The Paper of Record ran an article today about the the rising price of organic food.
I started buying organic food when I started feeding my first child solids. Amelia didn’t eat a bite that wasn’t organic until she was around 18 months old. (This happened to coincide with me getting pregnant with her little sister, which probably explains both the gradual slide away from all-organic-all-the-time as well as her first exposure to television within the same timeframe.) Natalie was also all-organic, but as is inevitable with the second child, I started sliding with her alot earlier – probably more like 15 months.
Still, I fed us all primarily organic food for quite awhile. Then at some point, my infrequent paychecks started to catch up with us – in fact, it was probably that 18 or so month period after Natalie was born during which I didn’t work at all that was the kicker. Our grocery bill was insane – even for a family of four and a half (I have a stepdaughter who lives with us part time). Rather than do all the grocery shopping at Whole Foods, I started buying certain staples at regular grocery stores. I still did meat and dairy and produce from Whole Foods, as well as most snack foods. As the girls got older, I started buying conventional produce more often.
These days I buy meat and dairy that is vegetarian-fed and no hormones/antibiotics even if it isn’t technically organic. I prefer organic berries and apples and leafy greens but often buy conventional anyway. If I have a choice between organic and non-organic pasta, canned goods, etc, I frequently but inconsistently choose organic. Anymore I focus more on things like whether the item is whole grain, or has high fructose corn syrup or other crap additives.
