Wednesday, March 11, 2009

"A Dime a Dozen" -- Just Not with Organics

As you may well know by reading past postings, I am an advocate of organic foods, for a number of reasons, primarily their lack of mystery ingredients, genetic manipulation and chemicals used in their production and processing. I believe that if grown properly with care, they are higher in flavor and nutritional content than what we now call "conventional" foods, this applies to fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products. I am also a strong advocate of real food, that is, food that contains what you expect it too without the addition of a gauntlet of miscellaneous preservatives. I'm sure that someone did a study of these added chemicals and determined that they are "generally recognized as safe", however these studies also typically result with "in moderation". Now how can we practice moderation if (as with high fructose corn syrup) the vast majority of food on the store shelf is littered with the same few preservatives? But I'm sure that they won't cause any health problems over extended and repeated exposure (sarcasm).
Before I get too far off track (I know, it's a theme with me), here's my problem- why must it be so damn expensive for people to buy real food that is nutritious and safe?
I would like to speak for those people who, have little or no education in regards to organic foods and little or no access to them. We have perhaps the most abundant food system in the world, you can go to almost any grocery store and choose from a plethora of attractive, fresh foods. I say almost any grocery store because 1) lower income areas may not even have a grocery store within reasonable distance, while most suburban sprawl areas typically have numerous stores to choose from and occasionally not even from competing companies. 2) Lower income areas also tend to maintain a much lower quality of food availability. That is to say that the foods in their stores is not as attractive and fresh, if there is even any "fresh" food available, many times there are only processed and canned or dry items available. And please don't get me started on the quality of restaurants available in lower income areas, if you can't cook for yourself then you are destined to a life of preservative-chemical ridden foods and fast food that has the quality nutrition of a bowl of sugar dipped in liquid fat.
Back to the subject at hand- Organics are supposed to be a means to help save the world from itself, -reducing the impact on the environment by using less fuel and petroleum based fertilizers. Reducing the impact on our health by not using chemical preservatives, chemical fertilizers which have residuals in the food itself, and boosting the nutritional quality. Along the way we are allowing a large number of our countrymen to remain in a food-ghetto because they cannot afford the luxury of healthier food, they have no decision to make because there is only one choice in front of them, they must continue to consume the same low quality products because they don't have the extra cash to commute to a store that offers a real selection and even if they did, wouldn't be likely to have the extra funds required to buy organic.

1 comment:

Momma Bear said...

Perhaps if enough of us grow our own organic food and share it with those who can't necessarily afford to buy organic foods then we could "help a brother out..."

But also share with another as well how to grow a garden.

I hear ya it's BS.