Do you sometimes feel guilty about your grocery store choices? Look at organic and conventional foods side by side, and compare for yourself!
Should I Buy Organic Food?
{This post was sponsored by Elanco as part of the Truth About Food initiative. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Referral links are used in this post.}
As a mom, a veterinarian, a scientist, and a food blogger, I get asked this question a lot. Should I buy organic food? Do you buy organic food?
So, should you?
If you don’t have the extra money to spend on organic food, then don’t stress about it. Conventionally grown food is just as nutritious as the organic versions. Conventional and organic farmers can both use pesticides and herbicides, but both conventional and organic food are both free from meaningful levels of pesticides or herbicides.
Let’s take a little trip around the grocery store and compare organic foods to conventional foods.
I visited my local grocery store, where I do almost all my shopping. They don’t have a huge selection of organic foods, but it is growing all the time. I shopped for the things I buy the most often – fresh fruits and vegetables, canned fruits and vegetables, frozen vegetables, milk, and eggs. I did look for organic meat, but the only thing I could find was organic grass-fed ground beef. They did not have any non-organic grass-fed beef. It’s not fair to do a comparison of grass-fed beef to grain-fed beef, so there is no meat in this example. I bought the store brand of the conventional and organic foods when possible. (The organic eggs were the only exception – there was no store brand organic option, and there was no conventional option from that brand.) I did not do any food styling before I took these photos. This is just food taken out of the bag or poured out of the can.
Fresh Produce
Would you be able to tell the difference if I hadn’t labeled the photos? The conventionally grown broccoli was packaged in a larger bunch than the organically grown broccoli, and it cost less. The organic baby carrots were bigger than the conventional baby carrots, but the packages were the same size (each bag had 16 ounces). I have seen organic baby carrots smaller than this, and I have seen conventional baby carrots bigger than this. The Gala apples were about the same size, but I paid more for 2 pounds of organic apples than I paid for 3 pounds of conventional apples.
Canned Vegetables
In the canned vegetable section, the organic vegetables cost more than double compared to the conventional vegetables. The tomatoes do look a little different. The organic tomatoes looked more appealing, but they tasted the same as the conventional tomatoes. The sweet corn looked the same. The green beans looked a little thinner in the organic bowl, but there wasn’t much difference overall.
Dairy Case
Yes, I know that eggs are not dairy. But they are in the same section of the store, so we’ll talk about them together.
A half gallon of organic whole milk cost almost double what the conventional milk cost. I used this handy tool on WhereIsMyMilkFrom.com to see where each container of milk was packaged. (Find out how to find the plant code on your milk here.) The organic milk was packaged at the Aurora Organic Dairy in Colorado. The conventional milk was packaged at Dean Milk in Louisville, Kentucky. I live in southern Indiana. The conventional milk came from 2 hours away, while the organic milk came halfway across the country.
I purchased these groceries on 5/5/17. The conventional milk has a best by date of 5/19/17. The organic milk has a best by date of 6/19/17. This organic milk was ultra-pasteurized which gives it a longer shelf life. This allows for slower turnover of the organic milk off the grocery store shelves.
I usually buy white eggs (because there is no nutritional difference between white and brown eggs). There were only organic brown eggs, so I bought those instead. The organic eggs cost twice what the conventional eggs cost. There is a big, splashy label on the organic eggs that says they “stay fresher longer!” But there are 29 days between the pack date and the sell by date on both egg cartons. So according to those labels, the organic eggs don’t actually stay fresher longer.
I also checked the plant codes to see where the eggs were packed. Remember, I’m in southern Indiana. The organic eggs came from Michigan, while the conventional eggs came from Illinois. Neither one is very far away (nothing like the milk), but the conventional eggs were packed closer to where I live.
Frozen Vegetables
Frozen veggies are every busy mother’s dream come true! (And yes, they have the same nutritional value as the fresh or canned versions.) Once again, the organic varieties were more expensive. I did think the organic peas looked a little bigger than the conventional peas. I thought the organic mixed veggies had more corn, and the conventional mixed veggies had bigger carrot pieces and more green beans.
How Much Do Groceries Cost?
We would have spent almost $10 more on the organic foods, and we would have had less broccoli and fewer apples. Remember, this does not include meat. This doesn’t come close to a regular grocery shopping trip for me, so just imagine this difference scaled up to a full week’s worth of groceries!
So…
Should You Buy Organic?
That is your decision. If you prefer the taste of organic foods, or if you like the shelf life of the organic milk, or if you know an organic farmer and want to get all your fresh produce from her – go for it.
If organic foods aren’t calling out to you, and if you’re looking for a good place to save some money without compromising nutrition, then buy conventionally raised foods. You need to do what is right for you and your family.
As for me? I’m going to skip the organic label.
Enjoy!
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- How to Test Eggs for Freshness
- Is Organic Milk Better For You?
- Are There Antibiotics in Milk?
- What’s the Difference Between Fruits & Vegetables?
- How to Wash Fresh Produce
3 Recipes to Try
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