Shopping Organic: Is it Worth It?

When my daughter was born in 2006 my husband and I knew she would only eat organically grown produce. We approached the "organic" topic with realistic goals, knowing that it wouldn't last forever and that we were willing to adjust to proper needs. The biggest factor in when and what organic goods we bought was of course our budget. When all you're doing is feeding a baby some pureed veggies and fruits it doesn't seem that bad. When it turns into feeding a family of three, however, certain things have to be adjusted.

We started small, only buying locally grown and organic produce. Our favorite way to support local farms, quite obviously, was visiting farmers' markets. We would pack up and head out every Sunday morning to gather produce, cheeses, baked goods and the best local organic bread we have ever tasted! That trip would last us the entire week until Sunday rolled around again, and we were always excited about what new products would be waiting for us. In between these trips, or out of market season, we had to shop at grocery stores for our organic products. When the cost of supplying my family with organic goods became a real concern I sat down and did my research...a lot of research. First, I found and narrowed down a list of the top most contaminated fresh foods.

My top 10 list for organic produce: I chose these as absolute musts when it came to buying organic. My method for picking these 10 was considering the contamination level and how likely it is that they're from local farms.

1. Apples - Mainly because of very high pesticide levels and because of family history of allergies to apples.
2. Pears
3. Tomatoes - I often buy canned organic diced tomatoes in bulk to cut down on the high cost of fresh ones. This was one item I changed for the entire family, since we use a lot in every day cooking.
4. Sweet bell peppers - I buy the bags of frozen diced organic green peppers at Whole Foods because more often than not I am cooking with them. They work out just as good and are much cheaper.
5. Carrots - They tend to go on sale just as much as regular carrots, but I'd buy them even if they didn't.
6. Celery - We eat this raw in salads and cooked in soups. It's an easy veggie to buy organically.
7. Peaches/Nectarines - Even though we don't eat them often, I only buy organic peaches because they are heavily contaminated and we eat them whole, skin and all.
8. Strawberries - Everyone enjoys strawberries, so this is a must for us. It is much easier, especially in the off season, to buy them frozen if you plan on just using them for cereals, yogurts or smoothies.
9. Lettuce - Let me tell what a huge fan I am of Earthbound Farms Organic Baby Mixed Greens salads, and they do occasionally offer some coupons on their site, definitely worth watching for.
10. Grapes - Although I rarely like to buy imported produce, sometimes you can't avoid it. This is one item that we made a special once in a while treat, but was necessary to keep organic.

I follow this general guide from TheDailyGreen.com when I'm narrowing down what not to buy organically (when the budget is tighter than usual).

With the produce list created and out of the way I moved to dairy products. When I first suggested buying organic milk for the family my husband laughed at me and declared that we will 'absolutely not' be buying $6 gallons of milk. On a mission to show him why we should I again went to do some extensive research. I have to say...couldn't find much information to help my defense. The National Dairy Council goes into detail about organic milk vs. conventional milk, suggesting that the only significant benefits are the farming methods. Of course better lives for our cows is a good enough reason to support organic dairy farmers, but not in a budget crunch. Milk was moved to the bottom of the list.

My next focus was grains - breads and rice. I never realized just how much it takes to control rice fields. Conventional rice growing methods use synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and growth regulators all of which I was completely oblivious to in the past. Although it is far more expensive (due to the higher cost of maintaining an organic rice field), I decided that the splurge was worth the occasions we ate rice. If we were big rice eaters on a regular basis I'm sure this would pose more of an issue, but the organic brown rice we have keeps wonderfully in the fridge and has lasted us a long time. The bread was a greater challenge for us. Although you can find many 'whole grain' and 'all natural' breads, coming across an organic loaf on your grocer's shelf (or mine at least) is very rare. Once in a while we'd get a special treat from Whole Foods, but I personally feel the cost outweighs the benefits.

As far as other household items, it has taken us a long time to convert. We still use conventional cleaning products and detergents, but some day we'll get there I'm sure!