# Do you buy organic?



## Mish (Nov 5, 2013)

So, who here is buying organic foods? I know a lot of people grow their own food during the warmer seasons, but what do you do during the winter? I try to buy organic veggies and fruits during the winter season. Am I a hippy...NO but I do believe eliminating as many chemicals from the foods you eat will help your overall health.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Wifey is inPublix, doing just that.
I wasn't invited to go in with her. Retards in Sams brought counter-rude Denton to the surface.

We agree, eat as naturally as possible. Stay away from processed and GMO. Avoid sugar. Stick with filtered water, tea, coffee and distilled...er, nevermind the ladt thought. Distilled beverages is in the nerve medicine category.


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## Mish (Nov 5, 2013)

Denton said:


> Wifey is inPublix, doing just that.
> I wasn't invited to go in with her. Retards in Sams brought counter-rude Denton to the surface.
> 
> We agree, eat as naturally as possible. Stay away from processed and GMO. Avoid sugar. Stick with filtered water, tea, coffee and distilled...er, nevermind the ladt thought. Distilled beverages is in the nerve medicine category.


Do you buy organic meat all year round? I do on occasion but I haven't brought myself to doing it all the time. =)


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

I do not go out of my way to buy organic. In many cases what is marketed as organic is no more organic than any other product.
But SHTF it will all be organic. And there will be a lot of hungry people as a result.
Sugar gets a bad rap it is the Artificial sweeteners and corn syrups you need to look at. Moderate sugar never hurt most people.
Moderation and exercise has more to do with over all health than organic food.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Mish said:


> Do you buy organic meat all year round? I do on occasion but I haven't brought myself to doing it all the time. =)


We don't eat a whole lot of meat, but try and eat the stuff without hormones and antibiotics
Furthermore, since bringing grains and sugar down to nearly none, aches and pains of arthritis has all but gone away and I am now maintaining about 172 pounds, now.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Smitty901 said:


> I do not go out of my way to buy organic. In many cases what is marketed as organic is no more organic than any other product.
> But SHTF it will all be organic. And there will be a lot of hungry people as a result.
> Sugar gets a bad rap it is the Artificial sweeteners and corn syrups you need to look at. Moderate sugar never hurt most people.
> Moderation and exercise has more to do with over all health than organic food.


Sugar is bad, artificial sweetners are horrible. Looking back, I wonder how we fell into the A.S. trap.


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## Mish (Nov 5, 2013)

Smitty901 said:


> In many cases what is marketed as organic is no more organic than any other product.


Fact or opinion, Sir? 
Organic foods: Are they safer? More nutritious? - Mayo Clinic


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Mish said:


> Fact or opinion, Sir?
> Organic foods: Are they safer? More nutritious? - Mayo Clinic


 Fact as I see it. First all the markets here that sell organic food grow it in the same places everything else grows. Second there are a lot of old healthy farmers here that eat a lot of what comes out of the fields.
They have for years tried to set so called Organic standards but so far everyone fails them any way. Things like how far it must be grown from other fields to what is allowed and what is not. Where water must come from ,controlling run off into the organic fields .
Where does the compost come from. What does a Organic farmer do when a bug is about to wipe out everything? slips in at night and sprays.
Then tells everyone his field are clean because they pick the bugs off by hand.
Most home owners use a higher per square foot rate of chemicals on their lawn than any framer does on the fields.


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## MrsInor (Apr 15, 2013)

With the cost of produce and meat going up substantially (and everything else) I buy what I can budget. That usually does not include organic unless there is a super duper sale (once in a blue moon).


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

MrsInor said:


> With the cost of produce and meat going up substantially (and everything else) I buy what I can budget. That usually does not include organic unless there is a super duper sale (once in a blue moon).


You hit a very important nail square on the head, Mrs. Inor. Eating healthier food costs a lot more. Most of us are judgmental when we see obese people using the government EBT cards, but they aren't fat because they are necessarily eating better than the taxpayers who supply the money for those cards.


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## MrsInor (Apr 15, 2013)

I try to hit only very important nails. The rest I generally bend when I hit them.


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## Mish (Nov 5, 2013)

Smitty901 said:


> Fact as I see it. First all the markets here that sell organic food grow it in the same places everything else grows. Second there are a lot of old healthy farmers here that eat a lot of what comes out of the fields.
> They have for years tried to set so called Organic standards but so far everyone fails them any way. Things like how far it must be grown from other fields to what is allowed and what is not. Where water must come from ,controlling run off into the organic fields .
> Where does the compost come from. What does a Organic farmer do when a bug is about to wipe out everything? slips in at night and sprays.
> Then tells everyone his field are clean because they pick the bugs off by hand.
> Most home owners use a higher per square foot rate of chemicals on their lawn than any framer does on the fields.


My tin foil hat is on a little too. If the government is involved, someone is being paid off. The people that are going out to "certify" these farms could be just as crooked as anyone else. =) Ok, maybe more...hehe


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

Bull manure is organic... but I wouldn't eat it.

The only way to be sure is to grow it yourself in soil you tested and using compost and fertilizer that you prepare. If you get steer manure how can you be sure what went through the steers digestive tract? If you are raising beef and one of your steers come down with pneumonia do you let it die or give it a shot of penicillin? 
Even our game animals - the ones that are tagged - are given shots when they are tagged.

Can anyone prove that what they grow is organic? It's just a label that costs the farmers more time and money to get their product to market. Does the penicillin that is fed to the steer end up accumulating in the carrots that I grow using that steer manure?

I think it's all bull manure.


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## Denton (Sep 18, 2012)

Then, heck. Let's just belly up to the laboratories and get our daily dose of GMOs, hormones and other healthy stuff; why even give it a shot, right? 
No need in changing out my Pro-Pur water filter, either. Heck, no telling if it is any better than the filters that do nothing more than filter out the smell and odor of chlorine, right?

I guess those of us who don't grow our own shouldn't bother?

Screw that! Gonna do the best I can!


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

My post was mostly in fun - just look at any process deep enough and there's a crack in the case.
I support eating healthy. If that means organic food for you then go for it. I enjoy what comes out of my garden and when the organic veggies cost less than the "other stuff" I buy organic. I do understand not wanting pesticides on your food but it washes off or it can't be used and it also has a very short life. They aren't supposed to use systemic pesticides on food crops - that means if it gets into the plant it can't be used. On the other end green leafy veggies absorb metals from the ground so you don't want to grow your spinach over an old lead mine but you do want it to contain certain amounts of iron, zinc and the other minerals that you need in your diet. Foods can't be grown in a lab - well they can and they use nutrients that are not always organic. Aquaculture uses chemicals to regulate the ammonia in the water and you have to add iron and other things to the water to keep the plants happy. If you don't add back to the soil it will become useless. Add those things that are necessary and keep out what you don't want. The farmers have been doing that for centuries.


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## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

If there's an organic option, I buy it. I am concerned about pesticides, of course, but I absolutely only buy organic sugars, corn, beets, etc. because GMOs cannot be labeled organic. We've cut out almost all processed foods over the past few years too, because they almost all contain either corn, soy or beet sugar, which are primarily GMO now. It's a lot more expensive, but I figure it's an investment in my children. I know some of it is bogus, but I also know all conventional food is filled with chemicals, so the odds are better with organic either way, even if some of the labels are lies.

Next up on the list, grow as much of our own food as possible. Prepping organic is just ridiculous when you're on a tight budget.


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## kevincali (Nov 15, 2012)

Eh. I don't search it out. I buy it when it's economically smart. I do grow a lot of my own food, and once it's producing I'll be eating organic. 

I did have a thought though. While I was tending the chickens, about 5 or so bees were buzzing around my nectarine tree. If I AM growing as organically as I can, if those bees pollinated a tree/bush/plant sprayed with chemicals, then come to my trees and pollinate, does that make my trees non organic??


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## doddy37 (Oct 20, 2013)

Yup I buy everything I can organic.


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## nephilim (Jan 20, 2014)

If I can afford it, I will. However in the UK, Organic costs upto 5 times the price of non-organic produce. Apples - an organic bag of apples can set you back £3.50 whereas a non organic bag for the same weight would cost you £0.70. It varies on what the product is but its awful either way for cost. Where I can, I grow everything in polytunnels and such like. Saved a fortune for squashes (pumpkins, butternut, marrow) and vine tomatoes. Will be expanding into making my own pickles and preserves to try to make them last in the winter months. 

For meat products I buy from my local butcher whom I have known since school, been going there since I was a child, and I take my daughter there with me now so she grows up and goes there with her kids etc. I have been to the farms where they buy their pork/cow/lamb/chicken products and everything is traceable back to the farmers who reared the livestock. I have a neighbour who has her own chickens so I get my eggs from her as she doesn't eat them (she gets about 15 a week, so I am kept in good supply - in return I do a spot of gardening for her such as law mowing or bed raking).


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## indie (Sep 7, 2013)

Apples top the list of produce with the highest pesticide residue. EWG produces a list of the best and worst produce items according to both levels and types of pesticides, so the "Dirty Dozen" list can tell you what conventional items to avoid: Summary | EWG's 2013 Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce?

If you can buy in bulk, you can offset a lot of the cost of organic. I buy staple items through Azure Standard where, for example, I can get organic rolled oats in bulk for less than the cost of conventional rolled oats by the pound at my local store. Apples are not too bad that way either. Bountiful Baskets has an organic option and you get quite a bit for the price, delivered weekly to a central pickup location in probably every bigger city and many smaller ones.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

I worked with an orchardist - apples mostly and yes they spray the trees with chemicals to keep the bugs off, and to keep the apples on the tree until they are harvested. From the tree they go into bins, trucked to the plant. At the plant they are washed in a biodegradable detergent that removes the chemicals, rinsed twice and washed again and then rinsed twice more and finally waxed. The wax replaces the fruits natural seal on the skin and keeps the apples fresh and looking good longer. The apples are floated in water to a separator where they are sized and graded. The apples that are in the best shape are placed in a separate area and about 50% are shipped over seas (near east) and the other half are placed in the refrigeration plant where they are held slightly above the freezing point in a CO2 atmosphere as insurance against a crop failure the following year. The rest are sent to markets around the country and any that don't make the grade are sent to the juicers. Apples don't absorb the spray chemicals into the fruit. The skin is a one-way membrane that only lets stuff out - never in. Even though the apples are washed, rinsed and waxed you should wash them before eating because they are being handled many times by many people after they leave the plant. E-Coli bacteria can live on the surface for a very long time. So wash the fruit and then you can enjoy it without concern that the mosquitoes will be afraid to come near you.


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## Michael_Js (Dec 4, 2013)

We buy as much organic as we can. I always wonder about how much organic Costco sells these days....

We also have a weekly organic local farm produce share we belong to as well as a small garden that feeds us, and our rabbit 

Yup, it costs more!!


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## Beach Kowboy (Feb 13, 2014)

I never hopped on the organic wagon. I try to eat as healthy as I can. We grow as MUCH as we possibly can and only use natural fertilizer. We now have our own chickens for meat and eggs,beef cattle,sheep,two dairy cows,goats for dairy(not much into goat meat). We even have our own pork now. I have no problems giving them medicine to keep them healthy and grow. I know it is not organic but it is the way we have decided to go. If something happens and we can't get the meds or fertilizer for them, I guess we will go organic. But for now, this is our route. We try to stay away from some of the processed stuff even though I like my junk food from time to time.


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## Scotty12 (Jan 5, 2013)

I buy what's on sale.


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## dani (Feb 12, 2014)

I raise our veggies as organically as I can. . . with pesticides and fertilizers. With the meat we eat, be it beef, pork, chickens, or god forbid my beloved goats, they are feed oof the pastures and supplemented with all stock, rice bran and ground corn.


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## pharmer14 (Oct 27, 2012)

I buy organic milk. As a single guy, I don't go through milk as fast as some households. While it's more expensive, I use all of it instead of throwing a third of it away because the expiration date is 2 weeks longer than regular milk.

Beyond that, no. I would like to get into organic gardening in the next year or two though.


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