One of the things I do to minimize my ecological footprint, besides recycling and separating my trash, is buying organic food. The first time I heard about organic food I figured it was going to be way more expensive than “ordinary” food and because of that not something I could afford.

I did a  little research in different (grocery) stores and supermarkets though and I let go of that idea pretty quickly. Buying organic products doesn’t have to be much more expensive! In fact, I found that some organic products are actually cheaper than regular products from A-name brands.

In The Netherlands there is a special quality mark to indicate a product is organic and around the globe there are many more that indicate the same thing.  You can’t just call a product organic just because you feel like it or because the cows it came from lived outside for a while. There are special rules and regulations in place. These rules are enforced (in The Netherlands anyway) by an inspection organisation named Skal. They go to companies to check if they keep to the rules, take products from there as well as soil samples etc. to be checked in a laboratory to see if there aren’t any chemical or synthetic pesticides or artificial fertilisers used.

So as you can understand it’s not that easy to create an organic product, there are so many things a farmer, baker and butcher have to think about and do before they can label their food organic. Even the way it is stored and shipped has to be taken into consideration. You aren’t allowed to bake bread from non-organic flower and call it organic, or make steaks from a cow that has seen some outside air and call it organic, even the food for the cow has to be organic!

Therefore it surprised me it’s just a little more expensive in general to buy organic, and by that I mean a difference of about 20 cents on products. I really prefer organic food, I think it tastes better, you can keep it fresh longer and it’s so much more environmental friendly that it’s worth the money for me to spend on it.
However with that said, I can imagine that some people might not be able to afford it; those struggling to make it to the end of the month financially will think that 20 cents on a product is a lot. And granted, some products are more expensive, sometimes even too expensive for me to buy (a piece of chicken breast for €9 for example).

The only sad thing is that I can’t seem to find a lot of organic vegetables, I went to different greengrocers and they all looked at me as if I were a little crazy asking for organic food. I found some fruit and vegetables in a supermarket that were organic but only in small amounts ( apples, broccoli and pineapple) so I’m still shopping around for that .

Not all things come in organic form, but the things I use most do such as milk, yoghurt, meat, (some) vegetables & fruit, rice etc. So shop around in your area and look for organic food, it doesn’t have to cost much more to make a difference in your ecological footprint!

No Comments on "Organic Food"

Leave a comment

Before you post be aware that first-time commenters are moderated and anonymous comments will be deleted.