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What causes me the most anxiety

Posted at 2:30 PM on March 20, 2008 by Vera Schabicki (1 Comments)

This week we have had greens from Mr. Cheeseman and greens from our own over wintered garden. We have had a gift of lovely fresh eggs from Ms. Hazel (she is someone we work with at the food closet) and lots of Mr. Helwigs delicious fresh milk. I bought a huge amount of bulk grain and beans a few months ago, so we are still eating those. We had oranges from Florida, lovely new strawberries from Louisiana, and green beans from Georgia. A couple of weeks ago we went to Stan's Country Store and bought fresh local meat (boy oh boy where some of my kids excited, we do not eat meat very often so this is a big deal). The very nice Woman at Stan's gave me a tour of the butchering facilities, she told us about how the animals are raised and slaughtered. It was all very clean and beautiful; certainly a better life than those hideous factory farms.

What causes me the most anxiety and regret in this endeavor is not buying exclusively organic food. I made an environmental, social, health commitment to eat organic many years ago. My children all learned how to read the word organic as very little people, they know about high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated vegetable oil, msg, etc. I never buy prepared food; I rarely go out to eat, all so I can afford to eat in this admittedly more expensive way. I was so affected by the fragility and beauty of my first child that I could not see giving him anything but the very purest food and then five years ago one of my children was treated for cancer. This was of course a frightening horrible experience and I convinced myself that pure clean food would help heal her body and clean out the effects of medication and radiation.

This project has shown me that the quest for local food really is vital, we are not completely without resources here but one must search far and wide to feed themselves. There are some organic growers I have met, but certainly nothing like the majority. Is the small farm, the savings on the ecological front, the independence of food supplies worth letting go of the organic standard? There is a selfish part of me that wants to turn my back on this social responsibility and just drive to Wild Oats and fill my cart with feel good organic food.

Best wishes, Vera

Comments (1)

Yes! I used to grow our food and buy from local folks because it was the only way to give my kids good food without added chemicals. Gradually, those older local farmers began using more and more chemicals, like their agribusiness counterparts. I finally switched to working to build supply and demand for organic foods. I'm still convinced that local + organic is the magic formula for the long-term, and so I try to spend my food budget accordingly. But when and where I'm forced to choose, organic and my family's health edges out local. I just try to keep it in balance.

Posted by Cher Stuewe-Portnoff | March 22, 2008 2:53 PM