I happen to disagree, and here's why:
OK, a flat screen TV at Costco is from $2-5,000. A pair of Prada heels goes for more than $850 at Saks' Fifth Avenue. You can buy $200 tee-shirts, $400 pairs of jeans, $3,000 dresses, $200 iPhones, the list goes on and on.
So, why do we balk at a $300 grocery bill? A family of four can eat at Applebee's for about $50. You can eat at home for almost a week with that much money, if you break down the cost of each ingredient at an incremental level. All of civilized America and Europe pays an endless amount of money for clothes, shoes, jewelry, makeup: material possessions, all. But we don't like to pay for groceries. And organic? Who can afford it?
But how can we afford not to? If you ever wonder how your dinner gets to your plate, watch Food, inc., or read any number of expose books on the subject. One of the things you'll learn is there is very little regulation, and that labeling is a joke. USDA Certified Organic means about as much as "The check's in the mail". A handful of companies have complete control over what we eat, how it's processed, and what we pay for it. What you don't see behind the smiling artifice of TV and print commercials should be enough to scare all of us into buying everything we eat at the local co-op. The brutality of the meat for food business (and not just the animals are needlessly brutalized) This is the main reason I am a vegetarian. I really can't walk past the chicken case at the grocery store and not wonder if that poor animal was still alive when it was dumped into the scalding tank, to make its feathers come out easier. I know God gave us meat to eat, but He couldn't have meant for it to happen this way. We have a responsibility to treat lesser creatures than us in a humane manner, or we risk our very own morality and humanity.
So, yes, you can make a political statement by your choice of store. If enough people forsake their local Safeway or Albertson's for the store that sells organic and safely produced foods, that tells the politicians in DC that we as a people don't care for their relationship with the owners of "big food". (Tyson, Monsanto, etc.)
The catch is that we have to work a bit harder at keeping our food, and buy more often. Organic fruits and vegetables have not been sprayed with nasty chemicals, nor has the soil been treated with anything that was made in a factory by a chemist. The apples aren't as pretty, the oranges spoil a bit faster, as does everything else that hasn't been inundated within an inch of its life with chemicals. If we can make that adjustment, our bodies will feel better, and mass producers will have to figure out a safer way to sell their wares. This will also mean eating food that's actually in season, not imported from Chile or Argentina, where food standards will never be as demanding as America's admittedly flawed regulations. Is that so bad?
I'll never understand why we spend thousands on what we put on our bodies, but complain about what we have to spend to put in them. If we don't keep the inside working and fed properly, then eventually it will find its way to the outside, something we are all so concerned with.
Think about. Join your local Co-op. Find a CSA, and pay into it. Grow you own food, if you can. The things we harvest from our own soil tastes 100 times better than anything we can buy n the store.
Try it and see! ;)
Ok, here's one for ya.
ReplyDeleteI know a Certified Organic Feedlot operator. The inspectors came for a visit as they normally do on their rounds, announced and unannounced. He was fined because he had some by-product that was not allowed on the property or within the radius that is stipulated within his contract. It was not a small fine either. He is COMPLETELY organic and does not have anything that would be considered not with the animals being fed in the feedlot. Good healthy animals. The culprit - the bag of dog food. Yep he feeds his dog in the office away from the other animals. Because it has by-products in the bag he received his fine. A bag of dog food made especially for the dog, not the cattle. Therefore, the fine. The said bag was removed and the dog is fed at home out of the "zone" of the implemented radius in which it is allowed. I know this personally to be true. Certified Organic Programs implemented through the various organizations have VERY strict guidelines. I speak of the Certified Angus program. We are not a member because we are not able to meet the criteria. We tried and failed, and I made changes, but still we are not able to meet the criteria. We work hard to meet the standards, and yet WE are unable to do it. I aaplaud those that are able to meet the standards and are "certified organic" they have to follow the rules and guidelines that not even I can meet. I eat my own meat, I eat my own vegetables. I buy produce at the local market, and I still wash it. I guessI don't understand those that don't live in everyday production of american food. We grow corn and cattle, and the hay to feed them. If they were not taken care of we would not make any money. If there is too much rain the corn or hay doesn't grow. If we don't have good quality hay and corn ourcalves don't grow and our cows don't reproduce, and the bulls are not fertile. Its a vicious cycle.