Healing with Food Update

When Not to Buy Organic!

To Buy or Not to Buy Organic: What you Need to Know to Choose the Healthiest, Safest, Most Earth-friendly Food by Cindy Burke. New York: Avalon Publishing Group, 221 pages, paper, $14.95.

Have you ever yearned for asparagus or blueberries but passed them over because when organic they’re too pricey? I have. But thanks to a new book by Cindy Burke, To Buy or Not To Buy Organic, I’m now relishing some non-organic produce. Here’s why.

Some of our favorite foods are grown without pesticides and typically test free, or very low, from chemical residues according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s records.  See list below.

Rather than memorizing this “clean” nonorganic food list, consider the foods themselves for clues as to why commercial quality is ok.  Asparagus grows so quickly that bugs don’t get a chance to bother it.  Pests have taste buds too and understandably don’t chomp into garlic and onions. Whereas the thick inedible skin, pod or husks of most of the other entries are natural deterrents.

Two puzzlers on this ok-when-not-organic list are cabbage and broccoli.  Especially to home gardener who have lost cabbage, broccoli and kale to the diamondback moth. Herein is a great story.  For decades cabbage family greens were sprayed with increasingly toxic insecticides, but the wily moth quickly developed resistance to each new chemical bath. As a result, commercial growers had to resort to nontoxic biological controls pioneered by organic farmers!

But wait a minute.  It is a given that organic is the gold standard…not only for our health, but also the collective health of the farm workers, our soil and planet.  Yes, undoubtedly, organically grown food is always first choice.  If, that is—and here are the two catches—it is truly organic and it is sustainably grown.

Unfortunately most of the organic produce available today is flown in from China or South America. It would be naive to assume that “organic” grapes from Argentina are the same as those from my garden. While laws regulating organic standards are on paper, enforcement in third-world countries is a laugh. (Regarding packaged products, I trust the word “organic” when it’s used by principled manufacturers with a proven track record of supporting sustainable agriculture.)

So what are your options?  Become informed and To Buy or Not to Buy Organic is one good place to start. In the meantime, make sustainably grown regional produce and animal products your first choice.

OK if Not Organic*

1. Asparagus
2. Avocados
3. Bananas
4. Blueberries
5. Broccoli & cabbage
6. Garlic & onions
7. Kiwi
8. Mango
9. Papaya
10. Pineapple
11. Peas (in the pod)
12. Sweet corn

Most Toxic*  --  Eat only if organic. Ranked in approximate order of toxicity.

1. Strawberries
2. Red & green bell peppers
3. Spinach
4. Stone fruits (cherries, peaches, nectarines, apples & pears)
5. Celery
6. Grapes
7. Raspberries
8. Potatoes

* Lists adapted from To Buy or Not to Buy Organic.

May you be well nourished!

Rebecca Wood