The price of yogurt

The pre-school I work at bought organic yogurt last week! I was ecstatic!

Please, before you think I'm nuts, allow me to explain the reason for my enthusiasm. The pre-school I work at usually buys food in bulk at Sam's or Wal-Mart; the cheaper the better. "The cheaper the better" is a motto many of us live by. Finally Stonyfield Farm Yobaby yogurt was either cheaper or the same price as those other yogurts. This is a wonderful thing, but it's not just about the price of yogurt.

Buying conventional foods has a hidden cost of which many of us are unaware because we don't see it in our daily lives.

There is a cost to our bodies. Many modern food choices contain numerous additives that weren't in foods fifty to sixty years ago. When you buy organic foods, you can rest assured you are keeping artificial ingredients and strange chemicals (such as high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, sodium acid pyrophosphate, red 40, and azodicarbonamide for instance) out of your food, your body, and the environment. Some studies claim there is a link between consumption of these chemicals and diseases such as cancer. That's certainly a possibility, but the evidence is nonconclusive. There is definitely a relationship, however, between the first two items I listed and obesity, as these ingredients are not properly digested in the human body and are therefore stored as fat (that is another blog entry entirely though).

There is also a cost to the earth, our current residence. Studies have shown many conventional foods do not contain as many nutrients as they did just fifty years ago, most likely because modern agricultural practices leach the soil of valuable natural fertilizers. This happens when the land is used continuously and is not allowed an opportunity to be naturally replenished. Agricultural run-off (and the fertilizers and pesticides that run with it into our water supply) has created an ecological dead zone the size of Connecticut (and growing) where the Mississippi River flows into the Gulf of Mexico. For more information about this situation, visit http://www.sierraclub.org/cleanwater/waterquality/deadzone.asp. When you buy organic foods, you know for certain the foods you are eating have been grown without artificial fertilizers pesticides. The land is managed in a way that allows it to be utilized for many more generations.

We pay for the way the earth is treated. You can pay at the grocery store or you can pay to clean up our air, water, and land.

I hope and pray you are not put off by this discussion, but rather want to understand more. This is so important to me. Now, believe me when I say I know it can be expensive to buy organic foods. But if you can believe me of that, also trust that it is worth it. I still can't afford to buy everything organic, so I try to choose wisely. Switching to buying organic foods is easiest when done gradually. Next time I'll write about the top ten foods that make the most environmental impact when bought organically (Horizon Organic is my source at http://www.horizonorganic.com/). That way you can make wise choices for the earth and your pocket book! Stay tuned:)