Strollerderby : pesticides

Save the Planet, Save Money On Organic Food

Amy Kuras — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:31:00 GMT

In keeping with Earth Day, Consumer Reports (via the Consumerist) has some suggestions of how to save money on organic foods. One ideas is to prioritize your purchases: concentrate on foods that when conventionally grown have the most pesticides, like apples, peaches, strawberries and the like.

Another is to try the store brands. I swear by this –I couldn’t afford to eat anything organic were ti not for Trader Joe’s (also, almost one of their foods have high frustose corn syrup in them) and the private label organics from the two local supermarkets I prefer. Consumer Reports also suggests Costco’s Kirkland Signature organics brand. I agree – however, dealing with the massive warehouse club packaging can be a problem if you have a smaller family or a smaller house.

My personal Costco tip is to shop with a friend and split things. For example, they sell three-pound containers of organic spring mix for something like $5, less than half of what we’d spend for conventionally grown at the local fruit market. But that’s a lot less of a bargain if half of it ends up going bad before you can eat it. My solution is to give half to my mom, who loooovvves her some spring mix, whenever we buy it.

Also, look at some of the big organic brand’s websites for coupons, join a food co-op of there is one nearby, and shop in season. Some of the commenters also suggest buying a community-supported agriculture share or buying “pre-organic” from a farmer’s market. Many farmers are looking to switch to organic but have not been following those practices long enough to be certified as organic farms, so buying pre-organic can both save you money and help the farmer along in that process. Farmer’s markets, whether you’re buying conventional or organic, help the environment by reducing the carbon footprint of your food. And? They’re just plain fun for kids.

Long-Term Pesticide Exposure: Something Else to Worry About

Karen Murphy — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:52:00 GMT

Unfounded environmental fears notwithstanding, there's a bunch of North New Jersey parents freaking out right about now, and with good cause. It turns out that the dirt at their kids' school is full of pesticides, some of which have been banned for decades due to their toxicity. Parents fear that their children's seizures, aching joints and frequent colds and fevers have been caused by the pesticides.

I would be freaking out too: "The pesticides found in a pile of soil at the school are so dangerous they were banned by the federal government two decades ago. Chlordane, dieldrin and aldrin are neurotoxins, working on humans as they do on bugs -- by attacking the central nervous system. But because of the lack of research, doctors and scientists can give parents and teachers only vague information about the long-term risks."

Yikes.

Practically all the school's teachers are freaking out, too, and most have retained legal representation and are also being tested for various maladies including autoimmune disease.

And this is just one school. What's in the dirt at your kids' school? Is it right that we have to worry about all this?

Organic Food: Not As Great As We Think?

Karen Murphy — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:37:00 GMT

I've been paying the extra bucks and feeding my kids organically-grown foods for years now, because like many parents, I believe that pesticide-free food is better for small developing bodies that are less likely to be able to effectively assimilate chemicals. I know, too, that eating locally is also "better": not only does it help support your local economy via mostly small family farmers, but energetically it's preferable as well (stay with me here: this is macrobiotic theory), as your body can better use the energy from foods from your climactic and geographical region.

But how to balance the two? Typically, the organic produce I see in, say, Whole Foods isn't local (nor, mostly, is the other stuff, but that's beside the point). So, is it a big deal? Why yes, it is, actually, if part of your reason for eating organically also has to do with the environment and the chemicals released through large-farm production. Because guess what? The environmental cost for organically-grown produce may actually be higher than conventionally-grown produce. Grown without pesticides and herbicides, organically-grown produce is more labor-intensive (think about all those weeds in your own garden), and the cheapest labor is the farthest away, at least if you live in North America.

Yikes! Makes you think, doesn't it? It does me. Right now is a good time, seasonally speaking, to be thinking about making changes, as there are in most areas plentiful options that are local, and in most cases, cheaper: farmer's markets, CSAs, local family farms. But what about the rest of the year? Unless you have your own space for gardening and grow enough to put up the excess for the winter, it's a quandary. I guess it's time to decide how much that kiwi and that mango means to you in January, let alone those strawberries.

[original article pointed by Karen Rani guesting at The Zero Boss]

Organic Foods Found to Be Poisonous for Children

Karen Murphy — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 16:57:00 GMT

In an amazingly comprehensive new study funded by a Washington D.C. based neoconservative think tank, it was found that organically-grown foods, most notably fruits and vegetables, are actually poisonous to humans, especially the sensitive systems of our smallest and weakest citizens, our children. It turns out that the lack of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, as well as the hormones and steroids added to animal feed, creates an imbalance within the body that in turn secretes poisonous substances. In other words, if you eat organic? You are slowly killing yourself and your children.

The study shows that the chemicals we have been vilifying are actually necessary for human survival. Without them, the body slowly shuts down and organs begin to fail (this process takes on average 70+ years, but it is a sure and irrevocable process). Me, I am horrified. Here I've been paying, on average, three times the price of "regular" pesticide and chemical fertilizer-laden vegetables and fruits for ones lacking these crucial components for good health. It's enough to make me want to go get a big bag of Miracle-Gro and a spoon (yummy when sprinkled on ice cream; kinda crunchy but good).