Time To Go Organic

If this isn't enough to convince you to go organic I don't know if anything will.

You know I feel pretty strongly about feeding my family as much organically grown and produced food as possible. I've talked about it before. But even I didn't realize how pervasive these poisonous by products were or that they were allowed to be in our food. I know many of you were outraged by the tainted Chinese products that hit our shelves (pet food & Thomas trains to name a few) but did you know we (America that is) are producing this same stuff or that it is being put in our food as fertilizer, filler, and feed? I certainly didn't.

We as a people have gotten to be pretty entitled folk. We want to have everything we want at the cheapest possible prices every day of the year. That is not how things naturally work though. And in order to give it to us quality cuts are being taken to make that happen. Fillers are added to food to keep weight up while reducing costly ingredients (if you don't recognize all the ingredients in your food PLEASE don't buy it). Huge "factory" farms are replacing smaller operations and they are pumping their animals full of poor quality feed (and fucking melamine) as well as antibiotics and growth hormone to give you the cheapest animal products. But you are paying a price... it just isn't in your wallet.

I sincerely hope that you all will really think about what you are buying. And if you think the cost of organic foods is too high I hope you really make an effort to examine that decision. I have price checked organic foods in every conceivable location and I can assure you that the prices at Walmart are jacked up (often being 2x the price) compared to the organic prices at a store that carries more "health" foods like Whole Foods or Earth Fare... and considerably more than you'd pay at a farmer's market.
This past month I managed to pay $500 for the whole month for a family of 4 (including all lunches). It might not be as expensive as you think. You will have to make changes and you will have to give up your favorite brands (and that is tough at first I know) but it can be done. And because there are less brands to choose from you might find you SAVE money because you buy less prepackaged items.

If you think I'm just too *organic crazy* I'll remind you that just 7 years ago I was washing down my Lucky Charms with some Cherry Coke. If the Furiouses can change anyone can. If you want brand recommendations I'd be happy to steer you in the right direction. Eating organic foods does NOT mean you have to go all *sprouted wheat style* I assure you.

Up until now I have bought what I could but I've also bought conventional products if I couldn't find the exact replacement. After reading the NY Times article that's coming to an abrupt stop. We're not crazy and we'll still eat out upon occasion but I feel it is important to do what I can to reduce our exposure as much as possible. And I can tell you I'm really happy the pizza place up the block is organic!

I also want to remind everyone that changing what you eat, and how much you pay for it, isn't the radical change. What has happened to our food supply in our lifetime has been a radical change. Paying more for high quality food is what Americans used to do... back when farmers could actually support their families. Think about it.

And if you have gone about doing your research and found the FDA says that melamine is not allowed in food products... read that VERY closely. The truth is the US imports much of our packaged food ingredients from China. While a US food plant is not allowed to add melamine to it's finished product as filler... factories in China are adding it to ingredients (wheat gluten & milk recent examples... and some of that tainted milk did make it's way into US products).
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If you are motivated at all to make a change for your kids' sakes than you might be interested to read this.