Getting Preachy About Organic

Organic food is awesome, or else my name would not be Organic Lisa. Organic food is grown naturally without chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and are not genetically modified. Conventional means the opposite of organic. There are many reasons why you should eat organically.

If you had the choice between eating chemicals or not, why would you? Let's eat food the way nature intended it to be, not how large scale industrial farmers want it to be. It's in their best interest to mass-produce one product in the cheapest and quickest way possible, but it's not the healthiest for us.

Organic is better for the environment. The chemicals that seep into the soil get washed into the rivers and oceans, harming marine life. Also, we need those little critters in our soil; some are beneficial to the crops, like ladybugs. Getting sprayed with pesticide is probably not a fun way to die. Being called a pest hurts their feelings too.

Organic food tastes better! Try comparing an organic orange vs. a conventional one. The organic orange tends to be way more intense in flavor, both citrusy and sweet, while the conventional orange will have a more monotone sweetness.

Save money by buying organic produce in season. You could spend $8 on a tiny box of organic blueberries flown in from Chile in the dead of winter, or you could buy organic blueberries when they're in season (summer) and get them for much cheaper. If you can't afford to buy everything organic, you can save money by buying organic only when it comes to the following foods, which have the highest levels of chemicals:

The Dirty Dozen - which foods to always buy organic

1. Peaches

2. Apples

3. Sweet bell peppers

4. Celery

5. Nectarines

6. Strawberries

7. Cherries

8. Pears

9. Imported grapes

10. Spinach

11. Lettuce

12. Potatoes

And these are the least contaminated:

1. Onions

2. Avocado

3. Sweet corn

4. Pineapple

5. Mango

6. Asparagus

7. Sweet peas

8. Kiwi

9. Bananas

10. Cabbage

11. Broccoli

12. Papaya

You'll notice that the most contaminated produce are the ones with little or no skin to protect themselves, while many of the least contaminated have a thick removable skin. That's a good way to remember which foods you should buy organically.

The farmers market is a GREAT place to buy organic, local food for very cheap. Be sure to ask each vendor if they use pesticides or chemical fertilizers. I just got 3 cartons of delicious organic strawberries for $4 last week! For a list of farmers markets in CA go to http://www.cafarmersmarkets.com/ Or go to http://apps.ams.usda.gov/FarmersMarkets/ for all farmers markets in the US.

Now, don't even get me started about organic animals and animal products... cows and chickens getting injected with hormones and antibiotics, feeding artificial food coloring to make the flesh of farmed salmon more red, genetically engineering pigs to make them higher in omega 3 fatty acids... GO ORGANIC. Or leave these poor animals alone.

With love,

Lisa the Organic Queen