while growing gardens, buy 'Organic' ?

ines871
ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

Cyndi O'Meara australian Nutritionist breaks down how deceptive ! Food industry companies are with what we assume... are organic foods. So when you look at the Label, you don't want to see : anything inside brackets like for instance (paprika powder), or colors, extracts, flavors, 'Celery powder' & Citric acid & ("natural flavors" are 40-100 manufactured chemicals), & 'Rosemary extract' & , & sanitizers & herbicides & pesticides etc ... are allowed in ever increasing 'organic' foods, even as they merely REname chemicals no sane person ever wanted in their food to begin with. And in the USA commercial-farmers (of any profession) have the highest suicide rate.

Fortunately intelligent & compassionate Functional MD's like Zach Bush & ND's & Herbalists like Patrick Jones actively guide natural soil REgeneration https://vimeo.com/311972894 , as Marjory also encourages people doing in your own land.

Comments

  • Foodgardenguy
    Foodgardenguy Posts: 106 ✭✭✭
    edited August 2019

    @rainbow This is really wonderful. Thank you.

  • tammyrichardsmt9
    tammyrichardsmt9 Posts: 109 ✭✭✭

    Thank you for this. It is getting harder and harder to find good foods - even among 'organic' labels. The more we can grow ourselves the better - or buy from trusted local farmers.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Discussing grocery Labels, with natural soil REgeneration: these two subjects while vastly Important, really need their own discussion, & not be mixed together. People most likely found that confusing, & thus but two comments. -

    Since members here span the entire spectrum of -> Still trying to like... Nutritional food, so can get myself to grow some, to -> Never yet grown our own food, but agree it's kind of important, to -> have some herbs, etc. in pots, to -> our herd of (fill-in-the-blank animals) is growing, to -> beyond our present food Forest, we are looking to buy yet more acreage, -> to ... you get the idea, right ?

    What was aiming for was a POLL, but as I don't know how here, would you just share the % of what you eat in a week: as typical grocery s.a.d.-diet, &/or Organic like what you already grow ? Does this make more sense ?

    Thanks in advance.

  • Foodgardenguy
    Foodgardenguy Posts: 106 ✭✭✭

    Hi @rainbow

    As always, the winter into early spring is the most difficult, but we try to gather as much self-grown and locally grown foods (we do have a large population of Amish people around us) for food preservation, canning, dehydrating and fermenting and just plain box and bag storage of other foods such as carrots, beets, potatoes and squashes before winter sets in.

    So in the summer to late November where we eat close to %80 in locally fresh grown foods and the other 20% labelled organic (such as using grains to make bread, legumes for alternative source of protein, dried fruit for making desserts) , that would change to about %40 local grown foods (from storage), %30 labelled organic and the remaining %30 vegetables and fruits from the grocery store in the winter months.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hi @Foodgardenguy -- I would love to be able to live close to the Amish, but they are just a bit too far north ?

    You are doing really Well... with what & how you eat. Good for you & your family ! How much are you growing in your own Garden ?

  • Foodgardenguy
    Foodgardenguy Posts: 106 ✭✭✭

    Hi @rainbow,

    Yes, we were really blessed in that way. The Amish has provided a lot and still do in some food crops (mainly those large buttercup squashes, because we just don't have the space for that). As I have mentioned in another post, we've been struggling with some predator issues and are surrounded by commercial farmland, which I believe is one big problem for us. We also face a continued inflow of water from surrounding areas because we are at the bottom of the hill. This leads to anaerobic conditions in our compacted clay soil. This has spurred me to research the area of permaculture.

    This year, our garden produces only about 10% of our total local grown foods.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hi again - hey, even 10% grown at home is great.

    When any student says 'nothing, or I only have (under 30%) right', or whatever..., I am quick to point out: "Hey,

    sitting at the bottom is the Best place to be 🙂 because from there the only way is Up !" - so your food growing... is bound to go UP, @Foodgardenguy

    Trying my best to say 'on Topic', I will posts some helpful Permaculture resources in your other discussion, okay ?

    Thanks for your participation.

  • blevinandwomba
    blevinandwomba Posts: 813 ✭✭✭✭

    We have pretty large Plain community where I live, so there are farmstands all over the place. Most do not grow organically, but at least its local and fresh.

  • Foodgardenguy
    Foodgardenguy Posts: 106 ✭✭✭

    Hi @rainbow, thanks very much for your kindness. I'll post my response on the other post.

    (For others who would like to follow in the other post: https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/844236#Comment_844236)

  • bmaverick
    bmaverick Posts: 175 ✭✭✭

    Growing your own organic can have issue with ingredients too!

    Ever try to make sense out of seed packets? The ones with so many fine print words? Cannot find head or tails if they are heirloom, hybrid or just regular factory raised types. Then dealing with the yields is the next factor, because I don't trust anyone's claim anymore. This season, planted 500 beets. Only 15 showed up, and out of 15 only 3 were editable. Thus, buyer be aware of who, where and what seeds you are buying.

    Grow organic and buy organic. Well, it's hard for most folks to grow just 20% of their year food, let alone 50% or 75%, thus, buy organic tends to be more frequent. Knowing the farm up the road, knowing of a REAL organic berry farm for u-pick, etc. all means buy organic. Organic in the stores? Well, the farm GREW it organically. It was loaded on a regular truck. Anyone know that the regular trucks the day before hauled glyphoste produce to the processing center? Unless the farmer delivers the organic foods to the processing facility or better yet, has their own facility on the farm, chances are, your organic foods are CONTAMINATED. Likewise with the organic food packaging. Oh, I could go on and on about organic on the farm, but once it leaves ALL BETS ARE OFF. In another thread here, someone said, they wish to have grown up 100 years prior to all of this. Amen to that girl!