http://www.care2.com/greenliving/organic-on-a-shoestring-budget.html
Organic on a Budget
By Melissa Breyer, Senior Editor, Healthy and Green Living
I wish there was a store where everything stocked was organic, local, non-GMO, truly healthy (as opposed to so much of the not-really-that-healthy “health food” available), and fairly priced. In my fantasy store it would be so easy to shop economically–instead of scrutinizing labels and trying to determine the greenest and healthiest choice, you could really just focus on the cost of things.
Alas, I haven’t found that store yet, and shopping sometimes feels like a final exam where I’m called on to balance out the benefits of an item’s ingredients, green integrity, and production method–and then compare those factors with the other similar items, and then compute the best choice for the cost. (And of course, I’m doing this as my 7-year-old is attempting to sneak the four-pack of strawberry milk boxes in the cart and my 5-year-old is asking for the 18th time, with increasing volume, “Can we go home now?”)
So I guess my goal is how to buy the healthiest and greenest food for the least amount of money. At this point I don’t know if I know how to meet this objective with seamless simplicity, but I have collected some tips to make healthy shopping more economical. In these times of leaping food prices and tightening belts, it seems like the right time to share. Some of these tips have come in through the comments on other Care2 articles (thanks, commenters!), some have come from other Web sites, and some are just tricks I have learned along the way. I’d love to hear other tips you may have.
1. Shop at a Farmers Market or Farmstand
Get local, seasonal food that is fresher than anything you can get at a store. by cutting out the middleman you generally get a much better price, you support the community, and you can find out about how the food was grown.
2. Join a Food Co-op
When you join you become a shareholder, which means you get cheaper prices and you also get to participate in how it’s run. You will have to put in some hours, but that can be fun and is well worth it. Our local food co-op has a playroom and babysitting, which is great.
3. Join a CSA
At a Community Supported Agriculture program at a local farm, you pay for a share at the beginning of the season and get a box of produce fresh from the farm weekly throughout the growing season. If you live in the city, the boxes will be brought to a distribution point in your neighborhood. You have to pay up front, but the long-term saving is significant, and you get to try things you may not have thought of before.
4. Grow Your Own
Do you know how cheap seeds are? You don’t necessarily even need a garden or a warm climate. Even a windowsill herb garden will save you money when all you want is a snip of bright flavor in a dish.
5. Try Chain Stores
Private label organic brands from chain stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and even conventional supermarkets can be as cheap as brand name non-organic products. Because they manufacture in bulk to stock all their stores, the pricing for their own organic products is cheaper than brand names. For example, Whole Foods has their 365 brand and many of those products are either the same price or only pennies more expensive than a name brand.
6. Warehouse Stores, Yikes!
I might not be a huge fan of warehouse stores, but you know what? In a real penny crunch I’d far rather buy organic milk from Costco than non-organic milk from someplace else. I realize that big-box organics may not be the greenest choice, but if you can only afford the must-be-organic items from a big box store, it’s a trade-off to consider.
7. Shop for Non-Certified Organic “Organic”
Many small farms use organic methods, but do not go through the organic certification process because of the extra cost and excessive paperwork. If you can shop at a farmer’s market, farm stand, or join a CSA, you can ask about what kind of farming methods are used and purchase non-organic food that is essentially organic.
8. Prioritize
If you can’t afford to buy everything organic, determine what’s important. For some rGBH-free milk is a priority, while for others humanely raised meat might be imperative.
9. Know Produce Pesticide Loads
If you haven’t seen the produce pesticide ranking provided by the Environmental Working Group, it is a great tool for saving money at the market. Based on the results of nearly 43,000 tests for pesticides on produce collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the ranking lists the produce which has the highest pesticide loads as well as those with the lowest. With this ranking in hand, you can know, for example, to always buy organic peaches and apples (which have the highest pesticide loads) but you if you need to save money you can buy conventional onions and avocados (which have the lowest pesticide loads). Of course always buy organic when you can for the sake of the environment, but when pinching pennies, you can at least prioritize and buy those which are the best for your health.
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19 comments
add your comment »I welcome any and all help I can get in keeping the organic food budget low. We are on a lower income and feeding a family of four can be tough. Thank You for posting and thanks to the comments who offer helpful advice.
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Awesome article! Another great way to save on organic food is by using coupons. http://www.mambosprouts.com has free printable coupons for natural and organic products. You can also sign-up to get coupon books in the mail.
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If you don't want to learn how to can, don't want to invest in the equipment, or are just plain scared to try it alone, I have several suggestions:
1. See if there is a "community kitchen" in your area. They have all the equipment on site you need to process and can your own foods you bring in. There is one within a 40-minute drive from me here in Wisconsin, but I haven't checked it out yet because:
2. You can just as easily freeze lots of things you want to preserve. A freezer uses energy, it is true, but if you've got one and it's running anyway, why not stock it up? Over the course of the summer I've blanched and frozen corn, green beans, broccoli, peppers, carrots, and nuts at their peak of freshness. Today I cooked and pureed pumpkins for freezing. You can use freezer bags and pre-measure the exact amount to whip out for a pumpkin pie!
The taste of produce frozen at its peak is unequaled by any store-bought equivalent!
I like to make preserving a social event, also. A friend of mine and I visit the farmer's market together, then go to one of our houses and do the prep and freezing together. Nothing flavors the food better than good company and conversation.
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I live in New York, Hudson Valley area, and have found that farmer's markets always have higher prices than supermarkets. I buy from from the local farmer's markets to supplement my garden's bounty (which wasn't very successful this year), but I don't understand why there is such a difference when there is, as you say, no middleman.
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"Point #9" doesn't take into consideration Genetic Modification--that's why corn for example doesn't have much pesticide compaired to apples. GMO might be as bad for your body and for the world as pesticides.
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Thank you so much - my husband has been laid off, and I don't want to give up eating in a healthy manner. This will help our new budget. Thanks!
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It was refreshing to see you add prioritization to your Organic on a Budget post, and then follow it up with knowing the toxic load of produce. These two items are key to keeping the cost under control. Nice post. Good luck.
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I don't do my grocery shopping at Trader's Joes, Whole Foods, or a farmer's market because it's rare here at LA. I purchase organic food from local food stores like Costco or Albertsons instead. Even though it takes gas to transport the food from the farm to the store, it's the closest to eat chemical-free food. I grow some of my own vegetables at home, too.
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One good point to make about CSA's- often the farmer will arrange a work exchange if you so desire. I work on my CSA farm for 4-5 hours picking produce, washing it, and packing the weekly boxes, and in exchange, I get my box of veiggies (more than enough for a family of four) for the week at no monetary cost. Since we eat mostly vegetables and fruit, the savings is enormous.
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Two things:
1) Living in Santa Fe, I frequent the 4 "health food" stores and large, year-round, Farmers Market here. Yet when I spent this past summer in little La Junta, CO (pop. 7000) I found a Wal Mart Supercenter with a LARGE selection if organic produce and frozen foods, at prices below even Vitamin Cottage! Can't wait to visit the one Sam's boys are building here!.
2. "Organic" alone, is not enough. Organic pasta still turns to paste in your stomach, organically-produced refined cane sugar will still harm your body, and "organic" pasteurized milk is still unhealthy, compared to raw cow or goat milk from un-drugged animals--esp. when the latter is not produced on factory farms." Better yet, let's leave the poor 4-legged moms alone to nurse their babies. Vegans live very well without animal milk.
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