Thuppal: Organic reaches practicality

So I’m standing in the middle of Market District with an apple in each hand. Both are… So I’m standing in the middle of Market District with an apple in each hand. Both are firm, shiny and free of cholesterol, sodium and artificial sweeteners. It seems that the only differences are that one apple has a small sticker deeming it “USDA Organic” and costs quite a bit more than the other. There’s also the whole pesticide thing.

I’ve come across a significant amount of literature that promotes organic, sustainable and overall environmentally friendly produce over the past few months. In that timeProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 I’ve also seen my kitchen fill up wProxy-Connection: kProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 p-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 h organic milk, strawberries and peanut butter.

It’s not that I drastically changed my lifestyle. Everything that I now buy organic, I have always eaten. Items have just been substituted.

So, being deep enough into this new venture, I decided to weigh the costs and benefits of my experiment. Benefits: nothing readily noticeable, but everything I read tells me I should be feeling more energetic and generally healthier.

Costs: a lot. In my experience, most organic foods tend to cost twice as much as their pesticide-laden counterparts.

This is when I’m supposed to start scratching my head and wondering why I continue to shell out a hefty sum for possibly nonexistent benefits.

Arguments like this one are oftentimes what I hear when I tell my friends and family that I’d rather buy produce and products from the organic aisle. Frankly, I don’t blame them.

Organic food makes a lot of sense to most people. It’s the cost that turns so many away. Even before we hit the recession, organic foods were seen as a luxury for most.

But the benefits of supporting organic farmers are not easily overlooked. By growing food the way it is found in nature, we can avoid chemical residue on our plates and keep species of plants and animals intact and healthy.

According to the Organic Foods Production Act, organic products are those that “have been produced and handled without the use of synthetic chemicals.”This means crops haven’t been sprayed or fertilized with anything other than manure and compost. It means that chickens, cattle and hogs are allowed to graze freely and aren’t injected with antibiotics that eventually end up in our bodies.

In addition to producing better quality foods, organic farming also respects the health of the soil by avoiding monocultures, plot systems in which farmers plant a single crop to the same land every year. And by taking livestock out of industrial farmhouses, the amount of waste we put back into the environment is drastically reduced.

Organic foods have been a fixture in the media long enough for most of us to pick up on a couple of these facts. But one question still remains. How can we promote the culture of more sustainable agriculture if we can’t make it affordable for everyone?

If eating healthier and more responsibly grown foods is important to you, than you can take a few steps that can reduce the overall cost of those foods.

Buy from local farmers. By supporting local farmers, you’ve taken a major cost out of the equation. Shipping costs include the fuel needed to transport the food as well as the means by which the food is kept fresh. Buying what’s closer to you eliminates some of these costs.

Eat what’s in season. Though your choices might be slightly limited, it makes a big difference to eat what is most easily grown during each season. Avoiding the inherent cost of the time and resources needed to grow certain crops makes organic a more viable alternative.

Support restaurants that buy from local and organic farmers. Find out where your food is coming from. If a restaurant finds that more and more of its customers are looking for organic foods, you’ll see a change in its menu.

Even after taking these steps, you still might find that organic foods don’t fit your budget. Even so, if we can all make a few sacrifices to support organic farmers, the cost we pay at the register could be returned many times over in that we pay for bad health.

E-mail Hay at hat23@pitt.edu