Luddene Perry - A Field Guide to Buying Organic: An Aisle-by-Aisle Guide to Every Organic Product

I s organic food worth it?

It seems like a simple question, usually delivered in a way that reveals the questioner's preconceived notion of the answer. Although there's always an emphasis on worth, the it is the litmus test. The believer in organic food uses it as an eye-narrowing challenge. The skeptic tosses it away. And the simply curious hold it up, for examinationlike an applein the light.

Our answer is always the same: It depends.

Yes, but is organic food worth it?

In the spirit of the curious, we set out to answer the question. We too had our preconceived notions, and we filled our offices with sources from both sides of the aisle. Most of the literature we could find took a strong position either enthusiastically pro-organic or sarcastically against it. We have written the book we couldn't find.

Our idea, at first, was simple: I would offer my thirty-five years of organic experience, and Dan would serve as both a foil and a stand-in for consumers increasingly removed from the soil and the realities of food production.

He was well suited to the task. In addition to having a lifelong love of fresh produce from his grandparents' farm, Dan supplemented his teaching salary with a summer job as a pest-control operator, fumigating flour mills and grain elevators. Despite his experiences on the farm and in the conventional food industry, helike many peopleknew very little about what happens to food before it becomes a mosaic of colorful packages on a supermarket shelf.

For me, the task was a chance to walk down my own organic memory lane back to J. I. Rodale and Organic Farming and Gardening magazine. When the first issue came out in May 1942, industrial agriculture had already established itself as the future of food production, but Rodale saw a different future, extolling the virtues and value of compostblack gold, he called it. I bought my first copy in 1968, and Rodale's romantic descriptions of the organic gardening life echoed my own fond memories of my grandmother's farm, of me perched on a bale of hay in the predawn light watching her milk our Jersey cow.

In 1968 growing food without chemicals was fast becoming a political act, but I just wanted to have a great garden and be as self-sufficient as possible. At the time, I didn't know much about fertilizers or pesticides, but I understood Rodale's idea: restore the soil with compost, and you wouldn't need them. That was the promise, and I was hooked before I finished the first issue.

In the decades that followed, organic foods moved from the backyard to the commune to the co-op, and I was involved every step of the wayfrom gardening to inspecting to certifying. By 1982 I had decided to devote my life to organic production practices and pursued a master's degree in horticultural food production, then started a Ph.D. in agriculture waste management. I didn't finish it, but I know more about manure than I dare discuss at a cocktail party.

Today organic food is a multibillion-dollar industry largely controlled by corporations and regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). With a 15 to 20 percent growth rate, organic food is the agricultural equivalent of striking oil. Black gold indeed. And when you consider that organics currently makes up just 2 percent of the entire food industry, it isn't too much of a stretch to imagine the enthusiastic salivation taking place in corporate boardrooms.

Of course, not everyone is happy about this development. Rodale's compost has fertilized the growth of a number of organic ideologies, from mom-and-pop principles to the politics of big business.

The promise of organicsor some version of it anyway has become a reality. Gone are the bins full of oats and the wormy apples common in the pre-supermarket era. Today shoppers push carts past pleasant displays of organic food, guided by friendly store personnel who dutifully explain the virtues of higher-priced organic food.

But is organic food worth it?

It depends.

To buy or not to buy has become the question in household debates that touch on issues central to our lives: our health, the environment, social justice, and the family budget. Overall, these discussions are fortified with limited and bewildering information. We may believe there are good reasons to buy organic food, but what exactly are those reasons?

By providing the necessary background to make informed decisions, A Field Guide to Buying Organic encourages you to define your own organic ethic. We've done some digging in order to frame the issues and help you make thoughtful decisions about your food budget, but our goal is to inform, not to preach. For some, this information will stimulate interest in buying organic. Others may become more skeptical. Whatever your reaction, you will be free to develop your own ideas about the value of organic foods, because we have found that the question of worth leaves out the most important element: It depends on you.

In short, this book does not accept at face value all the claims made about organic products; nor does it excuse concerns about conventional agriculture. Food is an emotional issue, for good reason. By now consumers have been conditioned to take the latest report with a grain of salt and an occasional dash of dread. Headlines extol the health benefits of something one week, then warn of its dangers the next. Shoppers are left holding the grocery bag, unable to sift fact from fiction.