Comments on: Oh, organic food. Why are you so expensive?

By: For inexpensive organic meat, the freezer is your friend

For inexpensive organic meat, the freezer is your friend — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:11:38 +0000

[...] since Tony and I vowed to stick with organic meat, we’ve had to be creative to keep expensive organics from driving up our grocery costs. Not [...]

By: Amanda

Amanda — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:26:31 +0000

Keep in mind that you can also often find organic products at banana box stores and places like Big Lots. Some friends of ours buy organic products through buying co-ops.

By: Margot

Margot — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:33:28 +0000

It’s great that you’re doing your small part to help the environment, animals and your health. However, just be cautioned that “organic” meat bought from grocery stores doesn’t necessarily address a lot of the problems raised in Food, Inc. “Organic” usually just means that the animals aren’t given huge levels of antibiotics and other pollutants. In terms of the horrific scenes in the movie, it doesn’t mean that the animals are treated any more humanely, that they are raised in less crowded facilities, that they are killed more humanely, or that their byproducts (feces, etc) don’t do just as much polluting because they are still being raised by large-scale, industrial farming.

The only way I’ve found to address a lot of the problems raised in Food, Inc. is to buy meat and dairy from my local farmer’s market. I ask (and they have photos) and can be certain that the eggs come from normal, healthy chickens that run around a green farm and that eat food that chickens were biologically meant to eat. I don’t eat meat, but it’s also clear that the chickens and cows were raised more humanely at the farms at my local farmer’s market. I encourage everyone to get to know your local farmers — either at farmer’s markets or by actually driving into farm country. That way you’re directly supporting people, animals are being raised outside of industrial production, and ethical and environmental concerns are somewhat alleviated. Also, every local farm obviously doesn’t treat its animals the same. I recommend talking to the farmers about your particular concerns.

By: anne

anne — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:42:26 +0000

I like your approach. We try to eat local/organic when possible but definitely keep our budget in mind. I buy nuts, seeds, beans, etc from the bulk bin at a local health food store. We eat less meat and more beans and lentils. Also lots of product from our farmers market. It's not organic but fresh and seasonal. .-= anne´s last blog ..Favorites in Blogosphere Right Now =-.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:54:50 +0000

Have you read the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma? that is very eye opening too. I can’t wait to see Food, Inc. Also, check out the Eat Wild website. You can find locally raised organic meat near you. We have bought 1/2 a pig and some beef through it and have been very happy.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:28:08 +0000

We have found grocery store organic & free range meat/eggs to be too expensive and have found http://www.localharvest.org/ and http://www.eatwild.com/products/index.html as great places to provide local farmers that provide the produce, meat, eggs and milk that we are looking for. We now pick up a month’s supply of food for about what we would spend on non- organic at the grocery store. We like knowing where our food is coming from and like that we can get it at a good price.
.-= Cathy´s last blog ..The Gluten Free ‘Dish’ =-.

By: joanna

joanna — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:18:27 +0000

Our solution to this last year was buying half a side of beef from a local farmer for our chest freezer. It’s the only beef I’ve bought all year, and, while $4/lb is pricey for conventional ground beef, it’s on-par with grocery store prices for organic ground beef- and, for $4/lb, we also got a whole bunch of steaks and roasts, too. which is a steal.

As for chicken, we have friends with an organic farm and “work” for our meat by helping with “chicken processing day”. While I haven’t seen Food Inc yet, reading Michael Pollan’s books have convinced me that local, free-range meat is the way to go.

And, yes, because organic meat is more expensive, we eat less of it, which is good for us. It’s rare we have a meat-only main dish.
.-= joanna´s last blog ..Alternative to the Holiday Madness =-.