A few people asked yesterday about how I decided between local, organic or conventional grocery items. I figured I’d jump on in and open up a discussion on the topic. Note, I said discussion because I’d love your input as I go back and forth on the matter quite frequently. In an ideal world, I’d buy all local AND organic, but there are things to consider like availability, cost, feasibility, etc.
Let’s start with the pros to each as I see them…
Local Pros:
Local food is picked at it’s peak and has very little transit time between the plant to your dinner table. Very often I’ve eaten kale picked that morning. Grocery store produce can be picked days or even weeks before it’s on the shelf, meaning it has lost many nutrients by then.
Local food is better for the environment. The average distance our grocery store food travels is 1500 miles, mostly by air and truck. Local produce also uses less packaging typically.
Local food supports the community and farmers you live in.
You can ask the farmers questions directly and even go visit the farm. It’s amazing how many foods are grown at a higher than organic standard, but can’t label it as such due to cost of organic certification. And even if it’s not grown organically, many times the local farmers are using much fewer pesticides than their big-name counterparts. Just ask!
Buying local supports biodiversity. Large companies tend to focus in on one crop, while a local farmer can grow a plethora of different crop varieties to help extend his growing season.
Local food is often more affordable and more of each dollar spent goes directly into the farmer’s pocket.
Organic Pros:
Organic foods contain less pesticides (they are allowed to use organic pesticides).
Organically raised meats are not given growth hormones, antibiotics or fed animal byproducts.
You know what you are getting with the organic label and don’t have to ask questions.
Organic food is always non-GMO.
Organic farming protects the soil and environment from toxic chemicals left behind from conventional pesticides and fertilizers.
So what to choose?
For me what I choose changes weekly depending on several factors:
– Time (how many stores am I able to visit?)
– Money (if I go to one of my favorite stores, Healthy Home Market, I can get most everything I need, but will have to be buying organic everything. That really adds up!)
– Who the food is for. If the food is for Hailey, I go organic. I’d say the majority of her food is still organic and I plan to do the same for Kaitlyn when she starts baby led weaning. Their bodies are just so tiny! I’m a bit more lenient if it’s for David and me.
– How much I eat of it. I buy conventional sour cream because a tablespoon or two twice a week isn’t all that much going into my system.
– Which list its on. I’m not perfect about it, but if it’s on the dirty dozen, I tend to go organic. I always buy organic greens and I try to remember to wash all my fruits and veggies well. As for meats, I really do the best I can to buy organic, grass-fed, antibiotic-free, wild-caught, etc. Again, not perfect about it, but meats are one of my main focuses.
So now I’m curious.
How do you decide what produce, meats and other groceries to buy?
What factors do you consider the most important?
Marjorie says
We do a mix of local and organic at my house (and sometimes it’s neither!). We are not perfect Availability and practicality play a huge role. Most weeks I do not have time to go to multiple stores. And like you, whatever my son is eating is most likely to be organic.
It is tough to do it all, but information is really helpful (like the dirty dozen and clean 15) and helps us to prioritize. Also stores like Costco are making it more affordable to go organic.
If we buy produce that is not organic, it does make me feel better to wash it really well in a bowl of water with a drop of Basic H2!
Heather says
We definitely do a mix at our house, but feel it’s important that the kids especially eat as much organic food as possible right now and we try to avoid artificial flavorings and preservatives and all that stuff. Granted, there are always a few things that end up not being organic, but I figure it’s not the end of the world. Also… organic is expensive and not always feasible depending on my schedule. We do our best, and I’m just always sure to really wash our fruits and veggies well. One thing I would like to do is buy more locally grown food. We don’t have a super close farmers market or anything, so that is one thing I want to try and find. I’m also at a point where I’m trying to convince my husband to eat less meat so we can focus on buying all organic meat. We do our best to avoid anything with antibiotics and hormones (especially chicken), but I want to cut it all out of our lives.
Brittany Dixon says
It’s a great idea to eat less meat to get the good stuff! That’s what we do. The frequency is about the same, but we split most meat and use less chicken now and it helps keep the cost down.
Paige says
I try to buy local when I can. Idont so a great job of buying organic because it’s so much more expensive and I’m an agile so I tend to trust that most farmers (even the big ones) aren’t trying to hurt us. Plus I wash all the produce I but from the grocery store. I would like to find a local lettuce grower in my area because the store lettuce grosses me out most of the time :). We own a beef cattle ranch so our beef comes from a mile away from my house which I love! I buy free range eggs when I can because they taste better – would like to buy local eggs and milk but I’m a fan of pasteurization. I’m seriously thinking about buying organic chicken now….so I’m a mixed bag.
Brittany Dixon says
You own a cattle ranch? That’s awesome!! Talk about knowing where your food comes from 🙂 I get free range eggs from a friend that owns chickens and I totally agree that there is a taste difference!
Nicole says
I’m still learning a lot about which foods to buy organic/non-organic, but I try to support farmer’s markets as much as possible. For one, their produce always looks and tastes better! Plus, why not support the local economy? It definitely freaks me out a little when I see apples imported from Chile or something, when I know we could be growing them in a local farm!
Also- that’s interesting about farmer’s organic produce not being labeled as such because of the certification cost. I didn’t know that!
Katie says
We also do a mix! I really focus on buying food from local sources for all the above reasons you listed. We buy our beef and pork in bulk from a local farm that sells grass-fed meat, we get a CSA for 20 weeks from a local farm and while it’s not certified organic, they use similar practices and limit pesticides (their berries are pesticide free for example). We also get a delivery of free range eggs and local milk from a farm. The milk is not organic and I went back and forth on it for a while but after researching the farm’s practices, I felt comfortable with the choice since they don’t use any hormones/antibiotics, allow the cows to graze freely and its from a farm 30 miles away (and my husband thinks it tastes better! 🙂
At the grocery store I buy almost all produce organic (with the exception of those with thick rinds/skins- bananas, avocado, watermelon, etc). I mainly shop at Wegmans and they have a big push to include local produce in their stores, so sometimes I choose the local items too. One area where I don’t always buy organic is cheese. It is SO EXPENSIVE. We love cheese but I can’t justify $5 for a tiny block that will be gone in a couple days. I do often buy Cabot or Trader Joes cheese since both pledge to not contain growth hormones.
I do love to frequent farmers markets but I have a hard time asking about growing practices if they aren’t prominently displayed. I know how important it is but I feel like I’m criticizing someone’s livelihood if they tell me what I don’t want to hear and then don’t buy their product. Its so much more personal! And I guess I’m just a wuss 😉 I usually research the farms attending beforehand and stick to what I know!
Brittany Dixon says
Sounds like you have an awesome system worked out and can I say I’m jealous you have a Wegman’s? I’ve heard amazing things about it! When I buy grocery store milk I get organic, but I usually try to get it from our farmers market, which sounds similar to your milk source, from “happy” cows that live out on the land and with practices I am comfortable with. And I agree with your husband because I can TOTALLY taste a difference 🙂
Sarah says
I’m pretty similar to your choices, although as a rule, I always buy local over Organics from China.
giselle says
We do a mix as well. I always buy the dirty dozen and any dairy we get organically as well as most processed foods which aren’t much. I also shop the farmers markets weekly so get a lot of produce from there which isn’t necessarily organic but I’ll ask about pesticides on their produce which they typically don’t use but just aren’t certified. It’s always worth it to ask 🙂 We ordered 40 lbs of grass fed beef and split 1/4 pastured pig with a friend from a local farm this year which we pick up this weekend! Time to get cooking!
Leah says
Money and time dictate many of my choices. I can’t always hit up 4 stores for weekly shopping. Happy Costco has more and more affordable organic options. I am there often so this really helps me out.
Samantha @ The Faithful Runner says
I usually do a mix between local and organic, but if I had to pick one, I would pick local. There’s nothing that beats knowing exactly where your food came from and about how long ago it was harvested. Great post!
Kelli H (Made in Sonoma) says
I do a mix of organic and local. Sometimes I can find organic for the same price as non organic and I’m stoked, but other times it’s just way too expensive for me to justify. In my perfect world I’d try to buy as much local as possible over organic. Like you mentioned, lots of local farmers use very little to no pesticides but they can’t afford the organic certification. I think that with an organic label you still need to ask questions. I bought some organic honey last week at Costco only to realize it was from Brazil. I think the local honey from Sonoma County would have been healthier for me and would have had more health benefits. I’m a little bummed on that organic purchase. haha.
char eats greens says
Brittany, this is such a great post and I think just understanding the pros to each is important! We always buy organic from the dirty dozen list (which reminds me that I DO need to update mine to the newest one!), and try to buy organic in general, but I’m ok getting conventional for the items that are on the ‘clean 15’ list. ANd luckily, my town is small and the two grocery stores I frequent are close to each other. The health food store actually has a lot on clearance when I go in, so I always check that section first (I was able to get a bell pepper, sweet potatoes, and kale from the clearance section this week – all organic!).
I always love hearing your opinions 🙂
Abigail Pinheiro says
I noticed you never posted anymore result in reference to the juice plus you started taking in 2011. Can you let us know what happened with that I am curious 🙂
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http://pinhiero.towergarden.com