What Do You Think?

Let's try an experiment... I say, "It's important to your health to buy organic food." 

You say....

Was it, "But it's so expensive?"

If you did, you're not alone. Practically everyone I talk to says this.  I've been wondering why.


If you think about it, it's not necessarily that much more money. I buy organic, free range eggs from a friend for $3.00 a dozen. Even if I didn't buy from her, I could buy similar eggs from my local food coop for $3.25 a dozen. Eggs from my local supermarket are $1.19 a dozen, which you could see as 1/3 of the price or you could see it as a 33 cent difference for the cost of a two egg omlette. The former makes it seem like a big deal, the latter not so much so.


Perhaps it's unfair of me to pick eggs this week when 1/2 billion supermarket eggs have been recalled. (I'm sorry, I suppose that was a low blow.)


Let's talk meat. I'm sure the meat I buy is way, way more expensive than what you're buying if you're not buying organic, grass-fed, free-range beef ($9.99 a pound for mine). I admit it, this would significantly raise my grocery bill if I cooked beef very often. But I don't. I use it the way it was used in generations past and the way it's used in most of the world: as an occasional meal or as a condiment. I don't base a meal around meat anymore. It's just clearly a major culprit in our health-care woes. The beans and whole grains I use instead are much less expensive (even buying organic) so cutting down on meat both allows me to eat more healthfully and have money in my budget to buy higher priced (organic) beans.


I'm not here to lecture, however. I'd like to start a dialog.  I'd love to know why you think buying organic, local, or small-batch food isn't worth the price. 

My best guess is that food seems to be gone once it's eaten. It seems to have no lasting value. Buy a couch and you sit on it in your living room every night. Take a vacation to Morocco and you have photos and memories forever. Eat breakfast and you've forgotten what you had by lunchtime. We don't really about how the food we eat builds our body and becomes our cells so it's easy to lose sight of the fact that good quality food really does keep us healthier. Or, maybe we all just don't know this or believe it.


What do you think? Am I on to something here? What's your theory? I'd love to know!