To be organic or not to be....

One concern we all have when buying our groceries is price.

Notice, however, that price is just that - one concern.

Not the concern. But one of many concerns, to my mind.


Certainly the quality of the food items ought to be a consideration. This is the case both in terms of nutrition of the general items (should I have blueberries or doughnuts?) and the specific items themselves (this soy milk has lots of added ingredients which I cannot pronounce, but this one does not, etc).

Somewhere in this equation we also ought to consider the quality of item in terms of its production. This is where the label of 'organic' most clearly comes into focus.

The consumer-culture has largely hijacked organic to mean something which is a benefit to ME. (If I buy this I consume less pesticides.) While this is certainly the case, we ought to remember that the Organic label is aimed to indicate something about the products production. This banana, for instance, was produced without any chemical pesticides. So, yes, it means you will not be consuming any pesticides. But it also means that the ground upon which these fruits grew did not consume any pesticides, nor did the farmers who labored over the fruits we now enjoy.


As Roxy and I have been drawn more and more into the discussion of eating organic food even more, we are ever aware of the cost differences. Oftentimes we don't purchase all organics, but will have to pick and choose some things to buy organic and some not to. (This does often involve a consideration of how many food miles our food has traveled, but more on that later! For more on calculating food miles try this calculator.)

In the meantime, my good friend Aaron has passed along this excellent resource from The Environmental Working Group. They rate individual fruits and vegetables in terms of typical pesticide exposure. (For instance, bananas are exposed to less pesticides than grapes because of their thick skins and distance from the soil. Their methodology and a summary can be found here).

Here are their worst top ten, which show the highest rates of pesticides:
1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Lettuce
9. Grapes (imported)
10. Pears

What this can also help us do is determine which fruits we ought to always buy organic, and which we can be more relaxed about. But I encourage us to keep in mind the total health of the ecosystem as we do this. Eating Organic is about much more than fad dieting. It is about embodying a way of life that is mindful of our neighbors, even as we are mindful of ourselves.