organic veggies or no?

[themindless]

i want to use a lot of greens for my smoothie, but organic veggies cost a fortune. do you guys use organic or no?

[rawnhealthy]

Definately organic. Not sure where you are located but even at the whole foods near me, greens are about $1.50 each and they are pretty big bunches.

[Rawkinlocs]

You do the best that you can. If you can afford organic, get organic...if not, then get what you can. I TRY to get organic greens most times...but sometimes I get inorganic.

[themindless]

Definately organic. Not sure where you are located but even at the whole foods near me, greens are about $1.50 each and they are pretty big bunches.

nyc. $2.50 each bunch at whole foods
thanks for the input guys

[Rawkinlocs]

Just keep a watch out. Sometimes I'll go to the food co-op and a bunch of kale or collards will cost 1.29...other times it'll be 2.50 or so. So, the price may not always be the same every time you go.

[Ama]

If you live in NYC have you tried the big market on 14th street on the weekends? You can get all sorts of organic foods there and the bunches are huge. I think there's another market by Columbia University but I've never been there. Here is a list of all of the green markets in the city: http://www.nyfarmersmarket.com/regionmetronewyork.htm

If I can't get organic I make sure to clean the produce really well with a veggie cleaner spray. There was a list floating around here on which foods contained the most pesticides and I do believe that greens were high on the list.

[juliebove]

I buy a box of organic produce each week. If I need to buy more produce, it may or may not be organic. I can't always afford it and I can't always find what I want that is good and fresh.

[luckitri]

For years I refused to consider organic. I said the water will carry the pollutants to whereever and it cannot be controlled so this is just bogus. Well now I have become totally sold on organic. I have seen those Krillion (correct me please) photos that show the energy levels of organic produce compared to non. I have been on here and read many testimonies of people who noticed a big difference. Most of the alternative healing leaders have always recommended organic.

So now that I am totally believing in organic I read two articles recently that taught me that alot of organic produce still has the bad hormones and antibiotics because the farmers fertilize their fields with manure from animals who have been treated with the hormones and antibiotics. The next is from a book published a couple of years ago that I just now read. It was talking about various pollutants and happened to mention that the Lower Colorado River is severely polluted with something called perchlorates. This water is used to grow miles upon miles of lettuces in the Yuma Arizona area that is a major source for US lettuces in winter months. These lettuces are now contaminated with above acceptable levels of perchlorate according to this book. This chemical affects thyroid function in a bad way. They have now done studies on children in the Yuma area and found that they do have thyroid problems.

I remember last year when the spinach was contaminated with the e-coli was it? Officials advised us that it would not wash off - that it was part of the spinach now. Others noticed that only the bagged spinach was affected and that the loose spinach from the same fields had no problems. So I don't think everybodies desire to understand what went wrong has been satisfied in this case.

I think that the answer is to buy local and organic and try to know your farmer and techniques used. Maybe we will have to reinstitute "victory gardens" in order to overcome this sick food system.

[PomegranatePip]

I TRY to get organic greens most times...but sometimes I get inorganic.

Inorganic? As in... mineral? :)

I try to get organic. Sometimes it just isn't possible, though. Too bad. They often taste so much better than the non-organic ones.

[CaliRaw]

Inorganic? As in... mineral? :)

I try to get organic. Sometimes it just isn't possible, though. Too bad. They often taste so much better than the non-organic ones.

'inorganic' food means non-organic, man-assisted, or conventionally grown. :)

[themindless]

i wish i could afford organic veggies and fruits. organic for veggies each week should cost me almost $20. i think i'll go with non organic for fruits as long as they have a peel covering it. o.o is that even the right word? i'm food stupid. either way i guess for strawberries and blueberries i'll have to go organic but for banana and papaya and mangoes and such... non organic. does anybody have a list of food that has the most pesticide? thanks again!

[Ama]

Here's a bunch of links:

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/search.php?searchid=341662

[baltochef]

themindless

There's an informative discussion going on over at the Living & Raw Foods Community Support forum concerning this very topic..

Check out www.rawfoodsupport.com/read.php?2,73212

The consensus of opinion seems to be that if it is available & affordable for you to do so, then organic produce is an exellent choice as you are putting no synthetic chemicals into your body..

This presumes that the produce being sold as organic truly is NOT contaminated with synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, etc..

In my mind as a long time organic gardener (1980), the only way to be absolutely sure is to either grow it yourself, purchase produce from local farms that you have inspected yourself (many farmers will allow this as it is cheaper than obtaining organic certification), or to purchase from farmers with impeccable reputations & proven track records..

If however, organic produce is too costly, or not readily available in your area; then purchase the best looking, best smelling, ripe conventional produce that you can find..Wash it well, & EAT IT!!..

Several long time raw foodists chimed in on the above listed thread to state that they seldom, or never bother to purchase organic produce..

Their opinions, and I tend to agree with them, is that eating raw produce in ANY form is so signifigantly better for the human body (then the SAD diet); that the detriments of not being able to eat all organic produce as opposed to conventionally grown produce are outweighed by JUST eating raw produce in any form..

My Personal Opinion

Buy organic if you can, but DON'T obsess over not being able to do so!!

Bruce

[trinity082482]

Organic is the best. I can't get everything in organic where I live but I do buy organic mushrooms, peppers, and banana's.

[ski bumette]

i want to use a lot of greens for my smoothie, but organic veggies cost a fortune. do you guys use organic or no?
I never use to buy organic as none of the 3 stores in my town carried them. Then 1 store started bringing a small amount of stuff in but charged a fortune for it and it wasn't good quality. I discovered the Co-op in a town about 45minutes away from me and they are all organic. Decided to give them a try since I was tired of limp no taste vegies and fruit. My dh buys his apples straight from the orchard as long as we can each fall. The produce is awesome. So much more flavour. I actually did a taste test with dh on the carrots, peppers and cucumbers since I still had small amounts of inorganic produce too. Well dh picked the organic in each taste test so goes to show it does make a difference. I didn't need to tast test on the garlic or the red onion......roflmbo!! 2 cloves organic garlic made my sunflower pate way too garlicky. I put same amount of red onion on my vegie burger (used pizza bread yum yum) and it was soooooo strong. Will have to use less from now on.

[baltochef]

I want to clarify something that I said in my previous post on this thread..

Since 1980 I have been absolutely convinced of the need to garden (home scale), & farm (large scale) both organically & sustainably..

The world needs to heal itself from the harm done to it by humans practising synthetic, inorganic agriculture..

At this point in time (due to a woefull world wide lack of resaerch in sustainable, non-synthetic agriculture), I see no alternative to accomplish this healing; other than a move back to the organic practises of yesteryear..

One thing that we must remember is that before the invention & synthesization of chemicals to fertilize the soil, animal waste was absolutely vital for large-scale organic farming..

Without the animal poop from the hundreds of millions of animals used for transportation & food there would have been NO organic farming..

By the middle of the 20th century, as the internal combustion engine began to rapidly replace the horse as a means of locomotion, organic farming was dying as a large scale & corporate model..

John Jeavons is & has been doing ground breaking research for the past several decades into sustainable agriculture on a small scale in California..

I haven't looked at his website lately, but the last time that I did he was not yet to the point where a piece of land in temperate North America could grow all of it's own vegetable-based fertilizer (green matter to be turned into high-quality compost); which along with green manuring & other pracrises would allow for real sustainable agriculture..

Hopefully, this goal of sustainable organic agriculture will be obtainable sometime in the near future..Without it the raw vegan diet will not be a viable one..

As long as raw foodists are dependent upon purchasing produce, nuts, & seeds from sources that are not from sustainable, organic farms that use no animal products in any way to grow their food; then can we REALLY call ourselves raw vegans??..

Philosphically, yes..In actuality, no..

It is a simple fact of life that virtually all organic farmers are dependent upon horse, dairy cow, pig, & poultry manure for the bulk of their fertilization needs..

There is simply not enough uncontaminated green matter waste available for organic farmers to turn into compost; in order for them to reduce or eliminate animal manure from their farms..

Without these manures they simply could not practise organic agriculture on the scales necessary to grow the amounts of food that America is currently asking for..

Until we have a nationwide model for recovering & composting all of our vegetative waste, & returning it to our soils; then animal manures will be necessary to organic farming..

Conclusions:

As aspiring or actual raw foodists we are already formulating the mindset to think & act differently from the rest of conventional, mainstream society..

We practise less harmful ways of eating (raw foods), thinking ( yoga, meditation, etc.), & acting (striving to be better people towards others & ourselves)..

As luckitri mentioned in her post above, I feel that all raw foodists should aspire to grow as much of their own food as it is possible for them to do so..

These would truly be Victory Gardens..

Not for a victory over a foreigh enemy that we are at war with..

But for a victory over the way that humans have practised argiculture (and thus raped the earth), both small & large scale, for nearly the past 80 years..

I see this growing of food in our Raw Victory Gardens as another manifestation of the mindsets that we have that results from eating raw..

In other words, as we change our ways of eating, thinking, & acting in our transition from eating SAD to eating raw; growing food for ourselves is another way to become more in tune with life..

By each person or family growing some of it's own food, we reduce the need for food to be transported long distances in order to feed a growing world population..

Other than the methane waste gas produced by growing animals food; the transportation of food over long distances by trucks, trains, ships, & airplanes is a major contributor to the world's pollution..

Reducing this pollution in any way can only be a good thing to strive for..

Sorry for the long post!!

Bruce