organic prices

[sammyd]

Do people really buy stuff at organic prices?
I am a proponent of organic and I believe it has its place in the market but really...
$3.99 for one (1) cucumber. 2.49 for one small bell pepper with some bad rot spots on it. 3.99 for a head of lettuce that is less than half the size of the non organic head....

And this one I really like, Organic Valley offers a special butter it calls pasture butter and the label says it is only made from May till Sep. Yet here it is Mar and the stuff is still on the shelves. Charge 4.29 for a half pound of the stuff.

[CesumPec]

I'm an advocate of organic, local foods bought from farmer's markets or local small scale retailers. But not organic from big ag in big box chain stores. That isn't another attack on Walmart, I love Walmart for certain things, but I don't trust big ag to deliver true organic. And once organic produce has been picked green and shipped 1000s of miles and stored for days or weeks, I don't figure it is any better than anything else in the produce dept. I have no science to offer to back up that opinion, except that i know how much better my own veggies are when picked ripe and consumed within a day.

[geo in mi]

Butter can be kept by freezing it. The label should have an expiration date on it.

geo

[InvalidID]

I can buy lots of organic (or chemical free as the folks aren't certified sometimes) in my local area for right around normal store prices. Of course it took some time to build up a network of local growers for me to be able to do that.

As for big box prices, not a chance I'd pay those.

[Le Petit Norman]

Originally Posted by sammyd

$3.99 for one (1) cucumber. 2.49 for one small bell pepper with some bad rot spots on it. 3.99 for a head of lettuce that is less than half the size of the non organic head

Eating in season help keep the price down, not really easy to harvest those in Wi during the winter ...

But yes people are ready to pay those price ... looks like some people are doing ok in this economy

I am still enjoy last year harvest, from my freezer and what was canned ... zucchini tomatoes and rice casserole with some homegrown chicken today

[geo in mi]

As Kermit the Frog said...."It isn't easy being green."

geo

[Coloneldad5]

Where practical (cost efficient) and reasonable I will buy 'organic' but I won't pay double or more for it unless there is a very good reason for that. I anticipate that it won't be such an issue soon as I'll be providing my own 'organic' food products.

[Horseyrider]

Originally Posted by sammyd

Do people really buy stuff at organic prices?
I am a proponent of organic and I believe it has its place in the market but really...
$3.99 for one (1) cucumber. 2.49 for one small bell pepper with some bad rot spots on it. 3.99 for a head of lettuce that is less than half the size of the non organic head....

And this one I really like, Organic Valley offers a special butter it calls pasture butter and the label says it is only made from May till Sep. Yet here it is Mar and the stuff is still on the shelves. Charge 4.29 for a half pound of the stuff.

I do. As long as the price is somewhat close (not twice the price) or not one of the Top Ten most sprayed veggies and fruits, I do.

Pasture butter is special stuff. It contains something called conjugated linoleic acids, or CLAs. There are only two sources for it-- pastured butter and milk, and grass fed beef. Research shows CLAs may be able to reduce your risk for cancer to a remarkable degree; and in addition, lowers triglycerides and the bad cholesterol while raising the good cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, and improves the body's ability to utilize glucose-- big news for people with insulin resistance and diabetes.

Something important to remember in all of this is that this is what your food was like before the industrialization of our food supply.

I buy raw cream during the summer and churn a year's worth, and then freeze it. You don't have to pay the 8.58 a pound for that; I paid about four bucks with a little labor.

I grow most of our produce myself, and I do it organically. That costs far less. I certainly don't produce everything. Yet I can't help but believe that it helps to reduce my family's exposure to pesticides.

Not much gets under my skin faster than seeing inferior produce (organic or otherwise) offered that's withered, bruised, overripe, or otherwise less than prime at a prime price. Used to be they'd mark this stuff down; but now they expect people to pay the same price for poor quality as for prime quality. That's a crime, as far as I'm concerned.

I put by almost all our food now, and I've divorced the grocery store. I'd be happy to go back when I once again find healthful food and value there. But as long as the food industry remains as it is, I won't be doing a lot of that.

I will say though that industrial organic beats the usual overprocessed genetically modified over advertised junk that occupies 95% of the space on the supermarket shelves; but not by a lot.

[sammyd]

There are only two sources for it-- pastured butter and milk, and grass fed beef.

Actually CLAs are found in most dairy and beef just more so in grass fed. It has been said that kangaroo meat has the highest concentration of CLAs and in the US wild game can be a good source.

[where I want to]

I buy organic if it looks good, doesn't cost a great deal more and especially if one of the local farmers has grown it. We have a lot of things grown in the area most of the year.
I buy organic carrots because they taste better to me.
I do not bother with it for most other things.

[Horseyrider]

Originally Posted by sammyd

Actually CLAs are found in most dairy and beef just more so in grass fed. It has been said that kangaroo meat has the highest concentration of CLAs and in the US wild game can be a good source.

The percentage in grain fed drops rapidly the longer the animal is finished on corn. CLAs run three to five times higher in grass fed meat.

That's cool about kangaroo meat.

I sure used to be with you on US wild game as being a good source. Perhaps it is a good source of CLAs; but unfortunately, around here the field crops are a major source of the diet, especially for deer. And since 86% of the corn and 94% of the soybeans produced in the United States are genetically modified, my regard for wild game has fallen precipitously. You are what you eat; and whether grass or GMO corn, we are what they eat, too.

[Tad]

Originally Posted by CesumPec

I'm an advocate of organic, local foods bought from farmer's markets or local small scale retailers. But not organic from big ag in big box chain stores. That isn't another attack on Walmart, I love Walmart for certain things, but I don't trust big ag to deliver true organic. And once organic produce has been picked green and shipped 1000s of miles and stored for days or weeks, I don't figure it is any better than anything else in the produce dept. I have no science to offer to back up that opinion, except that i know how much better my own veggies are when picked ripe and consumed within a day.

I got a chuckle out of this not that it is a bad idea but just because there is an small familly "organic" farm just down the road and the guy is crocked as a dogs hind leg. He does those crop share things we had a horrible spring two years back and that was the year of the tomato blight a neighbor saw him at the farmers market loading two pickups full of produce from one of the local conventional veggie guys.

[GeorgiaGirl]

If it's on the dirty dozen list, then I buy organic. My family eats a lot of bananas and avocados and they are not on the dirty dozen list.....so.....I get a little break there

[Home Harvest]

I've given up on "organic" meaning anything, ever since the government got involed.

We grow most of our food, and we know there are no synthetic chemicals on it. What we don't grow we try to buy local. I say try because we too have had experience with local farmer's markets selling supermarket produce. One guy even offered watermelon and sweet corn in May at his roadside stand. I asked him how he grew them so early, and he said he got them from down south. Crazy thing is, he saw nothing wrong with that.

We don't pay much attention to the OG label since the government got involved.

[CesumPec]

Originally Posted by Tad

I got a chuckle out of this not that it is a bad idea but just because there is an small familly "organic" farm just down the road and the guy is crocked as a dogs hind leg. He does those crop share things we had a horrible spring two years back and that was the year of the tomato blight a neighbor saw him at the farmers market loading two pickups full of produce from one of the local conventional veggie guys.

Understood. Yes, there are small operator cheats out there and I might unknowingly support them sometimes, but at least that is better than supporting the large institutional cheats. ACRES Magazine had a story this month about an "organic" supplier that was full of petro chemicals.

[TheMartianChick]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaGirl

If it's on the dirty dozen list, then I buy organic. My family eats a lot of bananas and avocados and they are not on the dirty dozen list.....so.....I get a little break there

This is what we do... Apples are one item that I definitely buy organic. We eat a lot of them in our house and I have one almost every day. We buy regular bananas though, for the same reason that you do.

[tinknal]

There is an organic section in our local grocery. I don't buy there with a couple of exceptions. I need tahini for making Baba Ganoush and the organic section is the only place they have it.

The other exception is bulk spices. They are actually cheaper than the conventional spices in the regular spice aisle.

[Tad]

Originally Posted by CesumPec

Understood. Yes, there are small operator cheats out there and I might unknowingly support them sometimes, but at least that is better than supporting the large institutional cheats. ACRES Magazine had a story this month about an "organic" supplier that was full of petro chemicals.

I know what you mean our milk co-op bottles organic milk for a chain store in NY and at least once a year a tanker of organic milk gets rejected when it tests + for antibiotics.

[beaglady]

[QUOTE=Tad;5752488...there is an small family "organic" farm just down the road... He does those crop share things we had a horrible spring two years back and that was the year of the tomato blight a neighbor saw him at the farmers market loading two pickups full of produce from one of the local conventional veggie guys.[/QUOTE]

If you mean that he runs a CSA when you refer to the 'crop share thing', one of the basic ideas behind a CSA is that the members share in both the bounty and any risk that happens to the crop. CSA stands for 'community supported agriculture'. You mentioned that there was a horrible spring, and that tomato blight was a problem that year. What this means to a CSA member is that they would share in the horrible spring and blight, and if the farmer didn't have much of an early crop, than getting little in return was part of the way things work.

For all you know, his members could have been made aware of the crop failure and been offered some of the other farm's produce with full disclosure of the source. In our area, a few of the smaller CSA's trade produce back & forth to give members a larger choice, and everyone is aware of where the items are grown if not from the main farm.

[honeyrobber]

I will never pay organic prices in grocery stores. The reason is most is not organic. I personally know a guy who has an organic certified farm and sells tomatoes to wholefoods. He buys alot of his tomatoes at the same place I do which is an amish auction. Amish in this area use pumps to water the crops put down plastic and use chemical fertilizers and spray with pesticides. They are heirloom type tomatoes but grown conventional. I reported him to wholefoods and nothing changed. They want then and do not care.

You want organic go to farmers markets and get to know the farmer. I have non certified organic berries. My corn is no pesticide but is grown with chemical fertilizer. Somethings like squash and beans are sprayed with organic sprays but when these fail I bring out the seven dust. I have no need to lie to my customers and they have learned to trust me due to the fact I tell them what has been done to there food. I grow alot of organic salad mixes which I refuse to spray as salad is to hard to wash throughly.