Organic foods?

The store is a good place to start. ;)We, personally, don't have an organic/whole foods type store around these parts. (Middle of nowhere!) So, actually locating organic foods IN our three separate markets has been a chore. However, we've found that one store is great for organic fresh produce and another store is great for organic stuff like snack, "processed" foods like whole wheat pasta, etc.It took us a good ten months to get into this groove. And still, I buy some non-organic foods because the selection around here is so minimal. Taking the steps to improve your health with food is goooood. Hard work but gooooood.

You might also check into food coops or farmer's market shares. Our farmer's market vendors sell shares of organic produce on a weekly basis---you pay one price per month and they bring your "share" of whatever the crop is to a spot for pickup. Actually there was just a big article in the WSJ about how WalMart is going organic---they have a lot more organic offerings than they used to. Go cookbook shopping, too----Moosewood, anything by Alice Waters (Chez Panisse) John Ash's From the Earth to the Table (my personal favorite), and the Jimtown cookbook are all great, healthy, focused on fresh produce and local ingredients.

Healthy food is all I've ever eaten, and although I do eat (grass fed only) meat sometimes now, I had been a vegetarian for many years before. Something to keep in mind is that buying local means buying fresh. Getting the "organic" label on food is extremely expensive (there are all sorts of hoops they have to jump through, and testing, and it costs a LOT), so there are many local farmers who will produce food which has no pesticides, meat raised w/o antibiotics, only grass fed, etc. which will not be labeled organic, as it is too expensive for them to go through the process. So just ask. Also, there was a big article on this in Business Week last week...WalMart and all these mainstream stores are going organic, which has led to a shortage of ingredients for organic foods. Stoneybrook Farms (the yogurt maker) has, for example, started importing strawberries from China and dried milk as well in order to make their yogurts. They are certified organic farms, but nonetheless, quality control is a bit more questionable when you start dealing with other countries and expect things to be fully organic. Also, farms here in the US are starting to have situations where they have hundreds of cows walking around on dirt all day, and yes, they are only grass fed, in bales, but is this what you think of when you think organic? I like to think of organic as how it started out, which came with good animal lifestyle, and all that. So..this is all to say that there are many ways of looking at what is "best" for you, for the environment, etc. I basically try to buy fresh at teh farmer's market from small farms where they do everything to qualify themselves as organic, but aren't able to afford the certification. It hasn't been trucked all over the country, of from another country, and if it's growing at a local farm then it is "in season," which is another aspect of trying to eat healthy--try to eat mainly in season foods. Ok, this is getting WAY too long!! Especially when really the basic point is to buy local if you can :) Teranga ps--mediterranean food is really healthy, largely vegetarian, and is delicious. We eat lots of it here and there are many great cookbooks for it. The Moosewood cookbook is a great starting point as well, as someone above mentioned.