Upstate NY Babies
TinaL99
member
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S/O organic vs. non-organic
TinaL99
member
Does anyone have good, reliable resources on the value of buying organic or not?
This is just an example but I've tried to convince DH many times that organic milk is better, but his old boss is a dairy farmer and after having many conversations with him, DH is convinced that organic =/= better. I don't have a lot of information on it so it wasn't my hill to die on, so to speak, and I dropped it. But I'd like to learn more about it so I can make my own informed decisions.
DD1: 3/31/10
DD2: 9/7/11
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Re: S/O organic vs. non-organic
Yes! Another couple that watches "nerdy" documentaries, haha. We watch a ton of netflix documentaries and I usually choose the food related ones. "Fat, sick and nearly dead" was 1 of the reasons why we bought out juicer. Sadly they don't seem to effect me too much. I watched Supersize me and all I could think about was how bad I wanted a Quarter pounder with fries.
My friend, who grew up on a dairy farm, said it is more important to buy milk that comes from one source than organic.
This is her email response.
In his opinion he feels that organic labeled dairy products are mainly a marketing ploy. Farmers that are certified as organic have to follow a set of guidelines. Some of those being, no BST and no sprays on the crops. BST is a cow hormone and it only ends up in the cows bloodstream, not the milk. And pesticides and the such that are used to protect the crops from bugs are only harmful to the bugs and not to humans due to the fact that it is such a small dosage. My father said that if you really get down to it and look at an organic cow verses a non-organic cow there is little no difference.
Granted, this is coming from a dairy farmer.
Anyway, we buy Walmart milk. It is cheap, and we are on a budget.
We did watch Food Inc, too.
It's really in how the farm raises their animals. Humanly treated animals is a pretty big deal to my family. The gov't has dipped their hands into the organic market and now there are "approved" chemicals and horomones that can be used on animals and plants. It's shame.
However there are farmers you can find, locally, and talk to them about their standards. We do a vegetable share every week from April-October and even though they are USDA organic, they choose to not use any of the approved pesticides etc. Conventional cows are given growth hormones so they can keep producing milk and antibiotics to prevent illness. Sure not all conventional dairy farmers follow this to a 'T', however most do use these practices because it's how they make money and have a good milk supply.
I would try and find some local farmers and speak with them about their practices. You will find out so much more when you speak to farmers of vegetables or animals. Best of luck finding out the rest of the information!
This site mostly just covers fruits and veggies, but I find it pretty even-handed and a good resource since we can't buy everything organic all the time.
https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list/
Same here! My whole outlook on food changed after watching Food, Inc. I suggest it to everyone I know!
This happened to me too.
After having DS, I didn't have a chance to get fast food for a whole month. So last week I got burger king (which is my favorite between McD and Wendys), and couldn't even finish the burger. It made me feel sick. I told my friend who is all about eating healthy and she was all like See - it's awful for you. But instead, it just makes me realize I can never go that long between fast food again. I need to gradually get back in to it. Luckily going back to work in 2 weeks should allow me for some easy fast food runs since in my couple mile commute I pass all 3 of those restaurants.
Read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. He examines four different ways of producing food- standard production, large-scale organic, small-scale organic and growing/hunting your own. It was eye opening.
As for milk, organic milk comes from cows that are (supposed to be) grass fed as opposed to grain fed (although some farms skirt this by feeding the cows organic grains so you have to look into the individual farms). Cows were not meant to eat anything other than grass so being fed corn and other grains causes digestive issues in them and therefore they are pumped full of antibiotics.