Flywheel Mama

The creation of this post was sparked by a brief conversation I had with a Costco employee.

I was picking out a hand of bananas, a convenient and super affordable staple for my kids, next to a Costco employee. He reminds me that I am picking out regular bananas and that the organic bananas are just right next to me.

Perhaps he has seen too many folks pick up a hand of bananas and leave, and not knowing that they actually picked regular bananas instead of organic. So I thanked his kindness and told him that I didn’t care for organic bananas, and he, to my surprise, reciprocated by saying he doesn’t understand the difference between regular bananas vs. organic bananas.

Bananas Are Bananas.

He went on to say that he grew up eating regular fruits and veggies. But I did tell him that while I didn’t care for organic bananas, when it comes to strawberries, I prefer them organic. And he agreed as well, we don’t know what they are using out there…

Maybe he agreed just to appease me since I am the customer. But even small talks on organic vs. non-organic food can be a battleground for those who are team organic or team non-organic.

So Where Does That Put Me?

It depends on the situation and the type of food we are talking about.

It wasn’t until college that I became aware of organic food and took a few sustainability courses at UC Berkeley. While the discourse on organic food was mostly positive in that everyone should have the right to healthy, sustainable foods, there was always a less positive side of organic food that rarely anyone talks about.

Who benefits from organic foods? The consumer like you and me, of course. But that’s on the surface level. The farmers may benefit from ‘higher’ margins, but even then it’s a tough job for farmers because they have to abide by all the regulations and processes of how they can farm and where they can farm. What if they farm next to a non-organic field? What if the pesticide blows over to their organic crops? Do they have to planting new organic crops? And how do regulators benefit?

As a consumer we don’t think about those things when we shop, we just look for the organic seal of approval. Well, why would we? It has the seal of approval, everything has been taken care of!

Well, then we see big brands monetize on the word ‘organic’ by marketing to consumers like ‘organic water.’ If the word ‘organic’ appears on the box, the markup is automatically 20% higher than without.

Buying Organic Selectively

While I strive to purchase 100% of our food organic, I don’t. Because there is no need to if I am properly informed, and talk through our purchasing decisions as a family.

But why talk about things as simple as organic vs. non-organic? Because shopping for groceries isn’t just a one-time purchase like detergent, it’s recurring every week or every other week. And grocery shopping can rack up over time, especially during inflation. And not only that, I am feeding my husband as well as my two toddlers. So yes, we need to talk about it even if it’s such a mundane topic.

So when it comes to buying produce, we buy organic fruits and veggies where we also eat the skin like apples, blueberries, strawberries, celery, cauliflower, spinach, etc. And we buy regular produce when we peel and throw away the skin like avocados, carrots, bananas, oranges, potatoes, etc. We loosely follow the recommended Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen.

We think pesticides reside on the skin and can be removed by peeling the skin off. Though there are arguments that pesticides can sip down to the edible parts of the veggies and fruits, it is quite unlikely since the skin would have done most of the protection.

We aren’t particular when we purchase meat because we don’t eat that much meat at home. When we do eat meat, it’s mostly chicken, oxtail, and beef bones for soup. We usually opt for seafood like wild-caught salmon and beans like lentils, garbanzo beans, and tofu. It’s healthier for our bodies and a bit better for our wallets.

Keep the momentum going,

Flywheel Mama