Organic Experiment

Howdy y'all. I'm sure you have all considered those products at the grocery store that have the word "Organic" printed on the packaging. While I knew that "organic" meant "grown naturally", or something akin to that, I didn't know much more than that. So, in an effort to be more responsible to our own health as well as considering the effects on those ecosystems these foods are produced in (i.e. everywhere), Melo and I embarked on a little organic food pilot program for the Kuhre household. I'm calling it Operation Organic Kuhres.

For some background, Melo and I love food in all its glorious forms. We often find ourselves contemplating it, discussing it, and then, inevitably, cooking and eating it. I suppose we all do this though- right? Well, everyone eats anyway. Knowing that we are what we eat, Melo and I wondered what kind of harmful things ended up in our bodies as a result of the foods and drinks we ingest. I had recently read the excellent, though slightly outdated "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson. The book was largely responsible for banning DDT in the United States. Despite the myriad of reforms by the USDA and FDA since then, you wouldn't be surprised to know that many synthetic substances still make it into our foods in varying concentrations. It turns out that our bodies act as repositories for some of these chemicals and that they can build up over time.


The USDA "Organic" label shown above in the food photos, can only be applied on foods that contain 95% plus organic ingredients. I found out that "organic" is defined, roughly, as a product that includes (courtesy of Wikipedia):

• avoidance of most synthetic chemical inputs (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives, etc), genetically modified organisms, irradiation, and the use of biosolids;
  
• use of farmland that has been free from synthetic chemicals for a number of years (often, three or more);
• keeping detailed written production and sales records (audit trail);
• maintaining strict physical separation of organic products from non-certified products;
• undergoing periodic on-site inspections.

So you see, it's a pretty robust certification. Something I thought was interesting is that the organic requirement goes all the way back down the food chain. For example, organic beef must only be fed organic cornfeed. So to go back to Operation Organic Kuhres, the idea was to eventually see if we could apply the same 95% USDA Organic label to ourselves. We're not even close by the way; but if we do get there, Melody has promised me we will get matching USDA Organic tats (just kidding! but seriously...).


One of my hang-ups with organic foods in the past, is that it was my understanding that crop yields were significantly less than conventionally grown crop. It didn't seem responsible to eat something that the world as a whole couldn't be fed with. It was also my understanding that the majority of the cost difference between organic and conventional foods was a direct result of the lower crop yield issue--more on that later. It turns out that according to one study, "...organic methods could produce enough food on a global per capita basis to sustain the current human population, and potentially an even larger population, without increasing the agricultural land base." I'm hoping to find more about this when I read Michael Pollen's book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma," over the next couple weeks.

So, Melo and I went to our neighborhood Giant to purchase as many organic products as we could in place of what we would normally buy. It turns out, there wasn't that large a selection. Although a full two aisles were marketed as "natural/organic", the vast majority of the products were not USDA organic. A great example of this is the popular Amy's brand. IMPORTANT: Just because a package says "natural" on it, this has no bearing on the organic nature of the product. It must have the seal.

We found that on average, the organic products were 70 to 80% more expensive than the conventional sort. Some items of note include milk and eggs, which were a full 100% more expensive. Interestingly, carrots and Oreo knock-offs were the exact same price as the conventional products--why wouldn't you purchase these? In short, we are not going to be able to "go organic" overnight, nor would most folks with a budget for groceries. It's my feeling that as the fad nature of the organic food movement wears off, the prices will come down. We'll see.


If you're still with me, this is the interesting part. We didn't notice a big difference in taste for most products, especially products with multiple ingredients (e.g. breakfast bars, etc.). With commodities like milk, there was a large difference. Organic milk doesn't have rBST (hormones) nor antibiotics. The cows also have a slightly different diet. As a result the milk tasted different; if I had to pick an adjective--"milkier".

I might update this post or follow it up later, but I've got to get going. Shoot me a line if you have any comments, questions, complaints, or good-jokes.