It boggles my mind that we're still talking about organic food as being better for the planet. People need to read something that has been published after "Silent Spring."

The other ideas here are all great though, especially reducing meat consumption. I get the shakes if I go too long without a bacon cheeseburger, but it's surprisingly easy to make delicious and healthy vegetarian food with little effort.

TOP 12 Foods to buy Organic:

1. Peaches

2. Apples

3. Sweet Bell Peppers

4. Celery

5. Nectarines

6. Strawberries

7. Cherries

8. Leafy Greens

9. Grapes

10. Carrots

11. Pears

12. Potatoes

Don't Waste your money on Organic:

Onion

Avocado

Sweet Corn

Pineapple

Mango

Asparagus

Sweet Peas

Kiwi

Cabbage

Eggplant

Papaya

Watermelon

Broccoli

Tomato

Sweet Potato

Well, yeah. The cost of this is a bit daunting, but if you've got the $$$, go for it. We are pretty good about buying quality food and a lot of unprocessed fresh stuff, but I will go for the bargains (e.g., regular v. organic) when the difference in price is significant and/or I'm buying large quantities.

Tofu: alas, my thyroid situation prohibits me from eating the gross tasteless stuff or drinking soy milk. Pad Thai with tofu, I will make an exception for.

Re: overpackaging of food products. I've found that since we began unfolding all the paper/cardboard boxes that crackers, cookies, Ring Dings (hey, I've got a teenaged son), pasta, etc. come in, and putting them, flattened, into our paper recycling bin, the amount of actual trash has gone WAY down. Our town gets some money back from its very successful recycling programs, so we're helping the local budget, too. It only takes a few seconds to break down rigid paper packaging and recycle it. DO EET!

The only thing I buy organic at the grocery store are eggs (cage-free, byproduct and antibiotic free), and when I can find it, beef (that hasn't been fed animal by-products).

Organic seems like such a huge price increase for, at best, only a small increase in quality. But the stuff coming from the local farmer's market, is on a different level. I always run into chefs at the farmer's market, so I know it's just not my own personal preferences.

Wow, I actually did not develop that twitch behind my eye I usually get when I read another article on being "green" with your food. This article isn't that terrible. There are some good ideas, like eating less meat, and avoiding seafood that isn't easily replenishible.

The thing I really can't do is afford a lot of organic stuff, and I'd do it just to avoid the pesticides, but I really cannot justify $3 for a pound of apples. I'll stick with my pesticide-ridden apples for $1.29 a pound. If I buy organic apples, I have to buy fewer apples. As it is, I don't buy more than a week's worth, though I could certainly eat apples and oranges all day.

"Sustainable" and "organic" do not belong together.

The sentiments about eating less meat, going for replenishable seafood, and attemping to buy local are fine though.

@laserjobs: Anything that's on the cheaper side (mass-produced) where you're eating the skin.

@Ratty:
"Sustainable" and "organic" do not belong together.

Why not?

@TinkishDelight: The only reason we can feed the number of people alive on the Earth today are through using modern agricultural methods. Reverting back to preindustrial agriculture on a mass scale would cause mass starvation.

The internet is full of information if you're actually curious.

@Lauchlin: MEATSHAKES! what a brilliant idea!

It always annoys me how stores make such a big deal about organic produce and do fancy displays with each fruit placed lovingly on an individual pile of shredded paper. For crying out loud, just stack the stuff up like the normal produce and people will not think it is such a special expensive item and treat it like it is normal to demand reasonably priced organic produce.

@Lauchlin: Well that would depend very much on who/what you're attempting to sustain. From an environmental standpoint there isn't anything particularly sustaining about the majority of modern agricultural methods.

@mac-phisto: Oh heaven's no. I'm going to need the dramamine now. Stop the spinning!

I'm calling BS on at least part of the article. Sugar cane doesn't grow in the US? Ever heard of Texas, Louisiana, Florida or Hawaii? Coffee and chocolate are also grown in Hawaii.

@pecan 3.14159265: Organic food uses organic pesticides, sometimes more harmful to humans than inorganic pesticides.

@TinkishDelight: There's a lot to read about it. Look into the late Norman Borlaug's work on the subject. That man singlehandedly saved billions of people through refined agricultural process, and in the future likely billions more will be able to eat because of him.

[www.openmarket.org]

It is only from a place of privilege that you prefer the sentiment of organic food above being able to save billions of other people from starvation.

@TinkishDelight: One might argue that the solution is to seek and use environmentally sustainable pesticides and agricultural practices rather than starving anybody not wealthy enough to eat if worldwide organic farming caused a food shortage.

@pecan 3.14159265: I like to buy the non-organic and just give them a hell of a good washing.

I realize that doesn't always get the pesticides that the veggies/fruit has absorbed but somehow makes me feel more comfortable.

Gaia likes Pop-Tarts®. I know, she told me.

I do the opposite of tofu tuesdays. We only eat meat once or twice a week, bought from some nice religious funamentalists who treat their animals right. Their free range eggs are from chickens who actually scratch around (and the yolks are delightfully orange). I'm freaked out by all the hormones and whatnot in conventional meat, and I'm convinced that superbugs won't come from doctors overprescribing antibiotics, but instead from farmers putting them directly into the cow feed. Plus, damn those chickens are tasty.

@TinkishDelight: From an environmental standpoint that (may) be true but it is what's required to feed those billions we have on the planet. Less food would mean more starvation and ultimately less people. I know some people think this would be a good thing as they believe the earth has become overpopulated and a small part of me agrees. But I also don't wish mass starvation on less fortunate countries

I did see a pretty cool show on discovery awhile back about vertical farming, the main idea being instead of having farmlands growing OUT they would grow UP like a skyscraper. I think the farming is still in its infant stages but the idea is intriguing, and might make methods like organic more feasible since less total land would be required.

@sir_eccles: but how would we yupssies and WASPs feel good about making a difference if we can't identify organic!?

* yuppies

@mazzic1083: Or we can combine vertical farming, modern and more enviornmentally friendly pest-control methods, and keep organic out of it. The resistance to modern agriculture is baffling--it's one of the biggest reasons people in affluent countries have the luxury of patting themselves on the back for buying something perceived as more natural when it never is. It still has pesticides, it still gets transported by truck, it still is packed, it still is mass-produced. Organic food generally has to travel further and use more packaging to keep it from being damaged and ruined in shipping, which makes it that much worse. :/

@Lauchlin: I certainly wouldn't argue against that. I'm just saying the two are not mutually exclusive. Maybe it doesn't work in terms of world hunger, but the article was clearly written from an environmental perspective.

@Ratty: I'm not sure how an article describing ways to reduce your environmental impact through food selection would limit the amount of food available elsewhere. I didn't read the article you linked to (and I definitely will) but I'm pretty sure my choice of organic peppers last night for my and my chemical- sensitive bird's health isn't going to suddenly make others drop dead of starvation.

@TinkishDelight: But he's got tomatoes on the other side. I don't get what he was trying to convey Not very useful without details

@Lauchlin: Locally grown, small farm organic is always better than big farm petrochemical fed food.

Sure there are environmental issues with organic as well, but if you want to eliminate your "carbon footprint" you might as well cut your head off and have somebody compost you. It's about reducing it and farmer's markets are a good way to start.

@TinkishDelight: the decision of ONE person isn't going to do anything. behavior is mimitic, however, and the organic trend increasing is leading to food shortages that people in the first world never have to deal with.

The article advocating organic food as a sustainable diet is the issue. The organic portion of it. There are environmentally-friendly ways of non-organic farming, and likewise plenty of environmentally devastating organic farming methods. Organic =/= good for the planet or body.

@cuchanu: Why is it ALWAYS better? Why do you have this mistaken concept that organic farming methods are not using tons of petrochemicals, harmful pesticides, and transporting food much too far? Greater efficiency in growth and harvest (read: big agra farming) means less of a carbon footprint per bushel of food.

For humor's sake, here's a video explaining how we can make the world a better place:

Sugar will grow in all those nice places, but that bag-o-sugar you just bought at the local mega mart was grown somewhere in the 3rd world, probably Brazil. Brazil produces 20 times as much sugar as the United States. Most sugar production was moved out of the USA 20 years ago, because of cost concerns. Now it comes from Brazil, India, and China.

@babyruthless: this is the type of change our diet needs (imo). for a loooooong time, (& for various reasons) meat was a luxury in the diet. it was served once or maybe twice a week & the leftovers were traditionally used to create stock for soup & other vittles that supplemented a mostly vegetable, fruit, grain & dairy diet. i, like you, think many of our health problems could be eliminated if we adopted this more natural diet.

@johnmc: They only produce it in very small quantities, as compared to the foreign sources. You can look for brands that are grown here in these United States, but you won't find very many, and they certainly aren't cheap!

@ChuckECheese: If this were Facebook, I would "like" this comment. Instead, I'll "heart" you.

@babyruthless: May I ask what your sources of protein are? I've been cutting way back on meat, more for the cost than anything else. But I don't get nearly enough protein. I hate tofu. Hate hate hate the texture, can't do it. Ideas?

@Ratty: Well, yes and no--he's also pretty seriously questioned as somebody who encouraged a move to a monocultural agriculture and dependence on unsustainable and heavy chemical practices (with subsequent problems for those workers exposed).

@mazzic1083: I liked "yupssies"--it's like a cross between a wuss and a yuppie.

@mazzic1083: what doesn't kill me only makes me stronger

That local produce thing is crap. It takes way more energy per pound for small local farmer than a giant corporate one to ship them to you. The corporate guy is shipping hundreds of tons while the little guy drives his beat truck or van to farmers markets in the area every day.

I grew up in the Salinas valley so luckily my local farms were the giant ones.

@katstermonster:

This vegan gets plenty of protein from spinach, brown rice and peanut butter to more than make up for lack of meat. Sorry you don't like tofu. Other vegan foods with protein include almost all nuts and seeds, most beans, most grains, broccoli, and peas. Quinoa is incredibly protein-rich.

@Ratty: There are organic foods that are grown in China, there are organic foods that are grown a few cities over. There are non-organic foods that share an identical geographical pattern. Just like everything else in the market there are choices to make. If you are buying food in season for your area the food can easily be local. Whether or not it is organic does not impact it's location. And the difference between organic pesticides and non is monumental. Organic pesticides are generally much safer for people, animals and insects and even the few that aren't when they are first applied don't leave the toxic residue that traditional pesticides leave. Have you ever visited an apple farm?

And I'd love to see some sources on your organic packaging theories.

You can't make these claims of "plenty of environmentally devastating organic farming methods" without attempting to back it up. If you want to highlight the difficulty of feeding a planet on organic I'd agree with you, but saying it's somehow bad for the environment or for your health just isn't true.

@katstermonster: I eat a lot of beans. And lentils. My favorite are red lentils, because they cook up so fast, but I can't get them at the local grocery--I have to take a trip out to Whole Foods. I like tofu, but am having to cut back on it (and all soy); I can't cook it at home though--the texture isn't right when I make it myself, though.

Other things I eat: seitan (wheat gluten), which is quite tasty when browned, simmered in BBQ sauce, and served on sammiches. I also do tempeh, which is similar to tofu, in that it is fermented soybeans, but it is totally different. It is, I dunno...chunky? I think that the flavor is better, and it is much easier to work with than tofu. These are things that aren't terribly easy to find at my local Kroger, either. However, they are rather common Asian ingredients, so you may be able to get them at an Asian market if one is convenient; I buy mine at WF, too.

Cheap protein: beans, lentils, eggs, cheese, nuts, whole grains, peanut butter.

@TinkishDelight: Great. Now I am craving stuffed peppers.

@The_Red_Monkey: When the article mentions local, I don't think it means the guy selling watermelon off the back of his pickup truck. I think it means full farms that make their money off producing vegetables and fruit for distribution, and not just from farmers markets. A lot of farms are part of distrubtion chains past their home state.

@Hoss: This is actually a list that's floating around various places; it was on the Consumer Reports site for a while, in fact. It's based on the Environmental Working Group's pesticide tests on various fruits and veggies. You can find the full list here: [www.foodnews.org]

One thing that's overlooked is the market pressures that come from buying organic. For example, certain beer companies (IE Sierra Nevada) have a high environmental commitment. If enough people decide to buy that beer in the east for that reason, it may cause local breweries to adopt similar stances. If you just buy something because it's local, chances are they are less likely to change.

@laserjobs: Who eats any of that crap? Well I can see onion rings and ketchup.

@cuchanu: You seem to be under the impression that most of the farming is NOT being done by the same companies that produce your non-organic food and also push the advertising getting you to buy organic. You also seem to think that local automatically means less fuel consumption when in fact it is sometimes better for the environment to have a cargo container of fruit come to the US than hundreds of cars make short trips to a "local farmers market".

I would like to suggest some light reading/listening to everyone out there. It just may make you ask questions and seek answers you might not have considered:

Locally Grown Produce

Is locally grown produce as green as its proponents seem to think it is?
[skeptoid.com]

Organic vs. Conventional Agriculture

Is organic agriculture truly safer or better for the environment than modern farming?
[skeptoid.com]

and:
Organic Food Myths

Is it a revolution in health and the environment, or a counterproductive fad?
[skeptoid.com]