Organic food prices debatable for students
By Jackie Zimmermann, Staff Writer
October 22, 2007 | 7:52 p.m.
You’ve heard it’s a good idea, but when your gaze keeps shifting between the organic produce in Kroger and the $50 you have left to spend on groceries, eating healthy seems to take a back seat to saving money.
As college students living on fixed incomes, the appeal of eating organic food can be lost in the midst of making sure the rent gets paid and that there is extra money for beer on the weekends.
“[Organic food is] lot more expensive,” senior Joseph (Reed) Yearwood said. “I have a real limited budget, so I only buy certain things.”
Even with the increased price, on a national level organic sales have been growing steadily. According to msnbc.com, the organic industry has had several years of a 17 to 20 percent growth rate while the conventional food industry has stayed at a steady 2 to 3 percent growth.
Deborah Murray, assistant professor in the School of Human and Consumer Sciences, feels there are two main reasons for the recent growth in the organic food industry.
“From the ecological standpoint people are more concerned about the earth, more concerned about pollution, more concerned about contamination and wanting to adopt as many earth friendly lifestyles as they can,” she said. “There is also a growing health concern that consumers have with ingesting pesticides and what that can do over the long term and with their children.”
What does organic mean anyway?
When food is certified organic, it means that it has been grown naturally without any artificial fertilizers or pesticides. In order to be certified organic, farmers must comply with a national set of standards.
“The certification process has been in place for awhile, but has kind of been stepped up in past years,” Murray said. “The certification used to be state to state and not standardized across the nation. Now it is standardized.” The national standards require that inspectors come to a farm annually and check the growing and storing process as well as survey the land to make sure the farm is not at risk of being contaminated by the chemical runoff from nearby synthetic farms.
Sounds good, but is it worth it?
Even though the all natural qualities of organically grown food seem like the healthier choice, there has yet to be any hardcore evidence about the negative effects of non-organic produce. “The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency are very comfortable with the level of pesticides in our food supply,” Murray said. “They’ve been tested, they’ve been retested, and there has been absolutely no research to date whatsoever that consuming produce over the long-term with very minute pesticide is problematic.”
Though research has not yet discovered any concrete negative effects of these chemicals, to many consumers the idea of the unnatural substances being ingested is not very appetizing.
“I think a lot of the effects are really long term and not necessarily short term,” sophomore Amanda Annis said. Annis, a cook at The Village Bakery, which specializes in locally grown and organic foods, is an organic food advocate. “It ensures the consumers that the farmers that are growing the food and producing the food are not using any fertilizers or chemical pesticides,” she said. “[That’s] really important for your own safety and health and for the environment.”
Staying healthy without going broke
Even though growing organic is all natural, the price of organic food remains slightly higher than conventional food.
“The farmers can get away with selling them for more because they are a niche item,” Annis said. “It also costs them a little bit more for the certification.” In order to sneak healthy organic options into your grocery cart without careening into a world of credit card debt, be choosy about what foods to buy organically.
According to an article that ran in the September 2004 issue of Business Week magazine, the top five fruits and veggies with the most pesticides are peaches, strawberries, apples, spinach and nectarines.
However, the October issue of the Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter claims that thicker skinned fruit, such citrus, have less pesticide contamination than softer-skinned summer fruit. Students also have the option to buy locally grown produce.
“I think it’s really important to buy local,” Annis said. “It’s not as expensive as the organic foods in the grocery store,” she continued. “The farmer’s market is always comparable and sometimes cheaper.”
Not only does transporting food from outside farms require burning more petroleum and fossil fuels, it also affects the nutrients in the produce.
“The longer that food has been off the vine and not growing, it loses more and more nutrients in it,” Annis explained. “The longer it takes the food to get there, then the fewer nutrients it has and it’s not as healthy for you.”
If students are really strapped for cash, but still want to be healthy, there are plenty of other food options as well. “
I don’t think college students have to feel compelled to break their piggy bank and consume organic foods,” Murray said. Becoming educated about foods that do not have a lot of pesticide contamination, such as onions, avocados and pineapples along with thorough washing can be effective alternatives to eating organic, she added.