January 10, 2019

Why you should think beyond organic for a bigger impact on the environment

January 10, 2019/ Kelly Pemberton

Globally, the way people think about food has shifted dramatically over the past few decades. With major changes to the food industry (including the introduction of GMO, the mainstreaming of organic foods, a growing awareness of the problems with factory farming, and the growing number of documentaries about our eating habits) more people now think that eating healthy is important. Along with that, many people have turned to the organic market to create healthier diets for themselves and their families.

Organic is hyped, let’s be real for a minute here. While I would never tell you not to eat organic (for reasons I have explained in previous posts), the fact is that there are lots of problems with organic farming that most people don’t know, or just choose not to think about. And eating organic will not help save the planet. That last thought is an important one, so I’ll repeat it once more.

Eating organic foods will not help save the planet.

June 07, 2017

Organic vs. Non-GMO Labels

June 07, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

Guest post by PacMoore

There was a time fairly recently where you were lucky if food labels listed the ingredients. In keeping with the Information Age, however, today there’s a surplus of information on labels in every aisle of the grocery store. Food labels tell you what’s in your food, how many calories it contains, how large a portion is, and so on and so forth. And, as the food industry and consumers continue to become more demanding, the amount of information those labels contain is increasing.

For example, more people today are apprehensive about eating non-organic foods or foods prepared with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), so organizations such as the USDA and the Non-GMO Project are labeling foods to help consumers make better-informed decisions. For many people, especially people trying to uphold a vegan diet, food labeling has become an important component of their lifestyles.

February 06, 2014

A cheaper green? How to shop for healthy and eco-friendly products on a budget

February 06, 2014/ Kelly Pemberton

A couple of weeks ago I was shopping at Whole Foods and noticed that the person in the aisle next to me had a shopping cart full of items. In fact, while wandering through the store looking for a marinade I used to use years ago, apparently no longer sold by Whole Foods (maybe too overpriced?), I noticed quite a few people with shopping carts full. None of them seemed to be to be the type of people who had money to burn. Now looks alone are no judge, but I wondered, how the heck can people afford to do so much of their grocery shopping at Whole Foods? Very few of the people I Having joked with the staff on many occasions about how it was impossible to get out of the store for under $30, I was pretty surprised to see more than a handful of people buying what struck me as hundreds of dollars’ worth of groceries.

There are cheaper options than Whole Foods, of course.

January 31, 2014

The controversy over organic

January 31, 2014/ Kelly Pemberton

Last week I shopped at Costco, as I do about twice a month. What was different this time was that upon entering the warehouse and showing my ID, I was handed a brochure advertising Costco’s latest organic offerings. I was curious: there seemed to be a lot more organic goods than I remembered, and some of the items I had been shopping for had disappeared from the store shelves, replaced by these new, supposedly healthier, products. If I sound a little skeptical it is because I am inherently more distrustful of organic products offered by big box stores, especially their own organic brands, than of organic products made by my local organic farmer, or sold by the small, local health-conscious stores where I’ve shopped for organic products for years. (Still, this skepticism hasn’t always prevented me from buying Safeway’s O-organics brand or more recently, Costco’s organic offerings.)

Browsing Costco’s “Save on organic at your local Costco” brochure did make me wonder, though, why some stores seem to be increasing their organic foods inventory.