Organic Thanksgiving dinner costs $100 more, so try cherrypicking
11:36 AM Mon, Nov 24, 2008 | Permalink
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The First Thanksgiving, Jean Louis Gerome Ferris (1863-1930)
SmartMoney went shopping in Manhattan, and all the prices seem really high -- but their organic bill -- which includes $70 in wine and an organic 20-lb. turkey at a whopping $4.99 a pound -- was $295.36. The non-organic version of the same shopping list -- with three bottles of wine for $51 and a $1.19 a pound Shady Brook Farms turkey -- costs $169.01. Here's a sample comparing the prices of organic and nonorganic Thanksgiving foods. When we shopped for staples yesterday, we got Whole Foods' store brand $2.29/lb. turkey (15.5 pounds, $35.61), frozen French rolls, unsweetened shredded coconut and whole wheat pastry flour. We then headed to Stop & Shop for everything else -- Nature's Promise stock, conventional gravy and stuffing and cranberry sauce, etc. I'm saving the produce shopping for Wednesday morning before work. After reading the Natural Resources Defense Council's Full List: 43 Fruits & Veggies that contain the most pesticides, I'll buy potatoes, green beans, red pepper, celery and berries organically. Eastside Marketplace sells organic and nonorganic fruits and veggies for the same price, so a stop there might prove worthwhile. The bottom line: You'll get the most benefit from buying organically grown berries, peppers, celery, spinach, potatoes and carrots. You can save by buying conventionally grown onions, asparagus and broccoli, which aren't as heavily pesticided. SmartMoney publishes their shopping list, with prices for identical quanities at Whole Foods and an Associated Supermarket and a Food Emporium. 4 CommentsLeave a comment |
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I admire your diligence in taking care of your family but I've got to wonder if any harm has ever been documented in a scientific journal regarding any injury to humans as a result of chemical residuals on foods.
Anecdotal information is all very well for reports of flying saucers but surely there has been some real science on this subject or why would someone pay five times as much for a turkey?
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Silas, here's the Library of Congress Pesticides and Food index.
Google Scholar has a huge index of Toxic effects of pesticides studies.
People don't buy premium food out of fear so much as out of a desire for quality as they perceive it. At Thanksgiving especially, the feast is usually the best you can provide, however you define that. I don't think most expensive is necessarily best, though. Good enough is good...
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Go vegetarian and save $70.
It is shortsighted on Money mag's part to only count the upfront cost. What about the offshore dead zones in the ocean caused by fertilizer runoff? Or pollution of fresh water? Health effects of chemicals? Distress of conventionally raised turkeys, living with their top beaks and claws cut off so they don't injure their neighbors?
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The benefits to buying organic go far beyond a lack of pesticide use, particularly when discussing organic meat and poultry. Someone above mentioned the distress of turkeys on conventional farms. That is all true, but here's a fun fact: Any conventional turkey that you've eaten recently in the United States was the result of artificial insemination, because turkeys here have been bred to have such large breasts that they physically cannot get together and mate. American turkeys can't even have sex because they were bred to be so large, so that more can be charged per turkey. That's motivation enough for me to spend the extra money.
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