Poorganic's Genesis

Last Saturday, Ben and I watched the movie "Food, Inc." It's just the last in a line of documentaries and books I've absorbed in the past year that cleverly presented the argument for eating whole, organic food.

Now, I'm like most people (I think). The idea of going organic seems great. That is, until you see the pricetag attached. I can get my regular gallon of milk for $1.99 these days. Organic milk: $6.00. That's when going organic doesn't seem feasible.

But this movie clinched it for me. I've got to try. And I know it will have to be a gradual change. As I survey my pantry, I see boxes of processed food (like four boxes of wheat Ritz crackers) that I don't plan to toss just yet. But my goal is to replace everything with organic products once I use up my pantry items. I'm already pretty good about being healthy: brown rice, 100 percent whole wheat/grain bread and pastas, 100 percent juice - and that kind of thing. But going organic will take a deeper level of commitment.

Again, it won't be overnight. Several months back I made the declaration that I was going vegan. That announcement followed a period of reading books about the food industry. Uggh! Disgusting. The way meat is processed, the fecal matter that inevitably gets in the food, the animal cruelty, the massive amounts of chemicals in the food (did you know that ammonia is used in beef filler to help kill the ecoli?) - all of that and more is enough to turn your stomach. But enough of that. I don't want to harp on all the info that is so readily available nowadays about processed food. Back to my point... The vegan thing lasted less than a week. Too radical to take on at one time.

I decided to put this blog together as a way to document my quest to have my family eat mostly organic foods - on a budget. Thus, "Poorganic". Can a typical suburban mom go organic on a tight budget? Or is organic living only for the upper classes in a first-world country (or the masses in a third-world country where people grown their own food without chemicals and eat it. The irony!)

Already, I've had some encouragement. I attended a party Saturday, right after watching the movie, and discovered that there were other people trying to go organic. My friend, Rhonda, a nutritionist, knows of a place an hour away that sells grass-fed beef, free-range chicken and the like. She says it costs the same as the food sold in the supermarket. Hmmm... Seems too good to be true. But, we're going to get a small group up there and make a purchase. Apparently, you have to buy in bulk.

I'll be back to report on the trip.