Going Organic

Along with my new beauty routine, another change slowly taking place this summer has been at the grocery. More and more of my grocery picks are of the organic variety.

You're probably rolling your eyes right now. Either because you practically have stock in Whole Foods and have been buying organic, cage-free, nitrate-free, grass-fed, locally-sourced, minimally-processed whole-grain super foods for the past decade, or because you refuse to buy into the over-priced hype that is "organic," whatever that label means.

Just a few months ago, I fell firmly into the latter category. I mean, no one can really argue that food with fewer pesticides and hormone injections is worse for you. But is it really better for you? And it certainly isn't better for your wallet. I basically lived by the rule of "when I win the lottery, sure I'll buy organic".

But then my neighbor Kim had to do a persuasive speech as part of a class assignment and I was invited to be part of the audience. (Yep, she had to do the speech for an audience, and film us to prove we were there listening attentively. Side note - I totally wanted to punk her professor and show up in costume or something. Oddly, Kim refused to let us...) As part of the assignment, she had to pick a side: organic or not worth it. And as often happens, in the course of her researching and writing and persuading, she actually convinced herself. Not only that organic is better (no one really argues there), but that it's also worth the increased cost. To put her money where her mouth was, she decided to buy all organic for a month. And as her neighbor, I benefited once a week from this shopping decision. I then proceeded to get brainwashed by her enthusiasm.

Now that organic products are relatively easy to find, and sloooowly coming down in price, I've started making a few switches. Now we buy organic milk. (Gulp. I get SO mad when the girls waste it. Talk about crying over spilt milk. I haven't been this sensitive about milk consumption since I was nursing/pumping. If breastmilk is liquid gold, organic milk is liquid silver.)

I bought organic chicken the other day. My eggs are cage-free. The girls have organic mac and cheese, animal crackers, apple sauce and juice boxes. We haven't made a complete switch yet, though. I can't seem to bring myself to buy organic cheese. And it's hard to buy organic fruit when the in-season produce is finally so cheap. Organic pasta, is it really necessary?

So, baby steps. I can't say I've noticed any radical differences, other than feeling more smug and superior when I roll through the aisles of Publix. But as Kim oh so persuasively pointed out, the more we (the universal we) buy organic, the greater the demand, the lower prices will drop, you get the economic picture.

But until then, you can find me crying into my (organic) milk.