ORGANIC VEGGIES AND FRUITS__IS IT WORTH IT?

I have to say that as a skeptic, I agree with this.

I usually buy just regular grocery store stuff, non-organic. It's fine.

My parents-in-law came to visit and they only eat organic. Went to Whole Foods (usually avoided for the Whole Paycheck aspect), got a bunch of things including some steak, some avocados and some tomatoes.

Holy crap. The quality/ taste really was significantly better. The tomatoes especially, but all of it.

Indeed, there are some products such as tomatoes that are remarkably better in quality and taste. Personally I don't it's so much a matter of being "organic" but rather just local farm grown and just picked ripeness. I only grow "sweet 100" and "better boy" tomatoes and i eat them by the pound within minutes of picking them. Incredible flavor. When I had a real garden everything I ate from corn to green beans to strawberries was picked and eaten within hours (especially corn)

I've been a slow converter to eating more organic foods. The closest grocery store is a Whole Foods so when I need something quick I tend to stop there. It's much more expensive, but I can tell the difference in taste. I agree with GW that the effects of agri-business impacts everything we consume -- it's a personal dilemma that I haven't fully resolved. I buy fair-trade items by choice.

OTOH, I've just finished reading the book Nickel and Dimed and would never suggest that someone who is trying to survive on low-scale wages could routinely (if ever) afford to shop for organics (even at Walmart).

I'll agree with green witch in that it is smart to know the purveyor; with Dys on the freshness aspect, which can have to do with locality re time passage; with those who show doubt re mankind's cheating tendencies; I'd prefer, still, to eat real-time organic food. I can't afford it, mostly.

I did have a short unloved thread that had a listing of where to emphasize organic vs. non-organic, if you are penny watching, somewhat as shewolf was alluding to.
Back with a link.

There was recently a graphic in the NYT that showed where most organic farms are -- lots in Ohio, which was nice. Shortly thereafter, when the kid was in the hospital, I read a thing in the cafeteria about how hospital employees could join an organic farm food cooperative. We had one of those in Madison. That one that I read about was just for hospital employees but there must be other options in the area, something I want to look into. (Just remembered, will start looking now.)

Link here - http://able2know.org/topic/103618-1

Forget Organic - what matters to me is Local.

Our farmer's market is mostly organic, but it's all grown within 50 or 75 miles of my house and is all really fresh. Tastes great.

The big thing out here is the CSA - community supported agriculture. They deliver a crate of organic veggies to your house, once a week. I'm going to get into this after the wedding this year.

Cycloptichorn

Interesting, osso. The ranking of produce surprises me in some cases (apples are very high).

RANK FRUIT OR VEGGIE SCORE

1. (worst) Peaches 100 (highest pesticide load)
2. Apples 96
3. Sweet Bell Peppers 86
4. Celery 85
5. Nectarines 84
6. Strawberries 83
7. Cherries 75
8. Lettuce 69
9. Grapes - Imported 68
10. Pears 65
11. Spinach 60
12. Potatoes 58

and the other list ranks meat and dairy above any fruits and/or vegetables.

#1 Meat: beef, pork and poultry: Meat has higher levels of pesticides than any plant food, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, Loux writes.
#2 Dairy: milk, cheese and butter. "Animals concentrate pesticides and chemicals in their milk and meat."

This is what I'm looking for (organic veggies from local farmers once a week or so) -- that's what we had in Madison. Haven't found it here yet though this seems promising:

http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=Home

I hope you can find one. I'm definitely going to be getting into a CSA here, after seeing how much my friends enjoy it.

I will say, you have to be dedicated to eating veggies; you get sent enough that if you skip a few days, you can look forward to watching a bunch of them rot away on ya; the organic stuff doesn't last very long...

Cycloptichorn

Might go in with a neighbor -- she's interested, too (and has two kids with big appetites -- between the seven of us we'd probably go through the veggies pretty quick).

Main thing that link has taken me to is several farmer's markets around here I didn't know about. Also some actual FARMS that aren't that far away. But delivery would be great.

Our local CSA (community supported agriculture) provider suggests http://www.localharvest.org/ as a good source

Excellent, thanks!!

That led me to the exact program I read about -- god it's expensive though! Sigh. Have to crunch some numbers. Great to know about, thanks again.

Yeah, I've thought about doing it for a couple years but always get stuck on the cost. We shop the farmer's market every week but there's only one or two organic stalls and the prices (even at the non-organic stalls) tend to be higher than the Whole Foods across the street. In that case it comes down to supporting regional farmers directly so that they get the money rather than the middle men. We do it for that reason, but I can't say that I give preference to the two organic farmers over the others. I probably should....

heh! I just noticed that one of the organic vendors at the local farmer's market also runs a csa program with weekly pickup (vs delivery) at the Saturday farmer's market. I'm there every week anyway.... I should check into this further.

It surprised me too, and naturally, I've no idea how right the numbers are. Still, it's a help..

On the CSA thing, I've read about it quite a while - I probably won't get into it, re the amount of waste I'd have plus the cost in the first place. Also, some commenters on it list times when they have way too much of a vegetable they have no interest in. (On the other hand, learning time, for new and good ways to cook things.)

I love farmers' markets - the one in Santa Monica used to be fabulous, same with the one near the embarcadero in SF; the ones in Italy, to die for, thinking of Campo dei Fiori and a few others - but the one here is pretty far away for me. Plus, of course, the money.

What I should do is go to the local co-op more often. I didn't like it the one time I went, but that's not enough of a test.

The Madison Farmer's Market is just amazing. I still miss it. North Market, here, is nice but has a completely different feel to it and seems really expensive to me. I found a few more-local farmer's markets that I hadn't known about, will check those out.

How much are they charging? Here, it's about 17/week for pickup at the farmer's market, and 30/week for delivery to your door.

My friends who do the CSA thing say you have to be dedicated to munching on some raw veggies all the time. It's a good thing in a way, b/c you are paying for a lot of healthy food, which sort of forces them to eat it...

Cycloptichorn

Adds, the Co-op in Humboldt County, part of what is a whole Co-op system, perhaps nationally, did buy locally for produce, and truly great grass fed meat. (Humboldt is pretty grassy, heh.)