Organic Isn’t a Splurge, It’s My Healthcare

Posted on Oct 6 2010 - 3:38am by Mike Lieberman

There was a post on CNN.com called Organic produce – when is the splurge worth it?

The title in and of itself is ridiculous that to consider buying unsprayed produce that hasn’t been treated with any chemicals as being a splurge. It shows how disconnected we have become from associating real food with health.

A licensed dietician, Sonia Angel, reported that organic produce isn’t significantly more nutritious than conventionally grown produce. She does say that organic is safer because it’s pesticide free.

I don’t care about reports, studies or tests. You can make the number tell whatever story you want.

Personally I don’t want to chug and put chemicals into my body, which is what conventionally grown produce is littered with. There is no way that it could be good for anybody or for the land that it’s being grown in.

The fact that one would even consider non-sprayed produce to be a splurge is telling of the the times that we currently live in. We see health as coming from pills or a bottle and not from the food, which we put into our bodies.

You know what a splurge is? A splurge is the car you are driving. A splurge is the huge TV that you watch. A splurge is getting your nails done. A splurge is not providing yourself with the best quality food that you can get your hands on or growing on your own.

For me buying organic isn’t a splurge. Buying organic is party of my healthcare.

What are your thoughts on splurging on organic produce?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_84DjcnofY

32 Comments so far. Feel free to join this conversation.

  1. Tamara Jo Rankila October 6, 2010 at 1:59 pm -

    The soil I bring in to my garden comes from farmland that has always been farmland. Organic I doubt. My plot is in my backyard, strange things got tilled up. Not organic. Ground water, air, polluted. I live between two mills less than three miles apart. Nothing organic in my town. But my veggies taste good and are plentiful. Nothing is organic. I use no spray chemicals. I believe “organic” has become a buzz word. So tired of it. I like food that tastes good, and my garden lets me have that. And I am dirt poor, my garden is my splurge in life.

  2. Local Search Marketing October 6, 2010 at 2:05 pm -

    Put your shirt on you hippie! Great video dude. I’ll be crashin your house pretty soon, kid!

  3. rachel whetzel October 6, 2010 at 3:26 pm -

    I LOVE this article!! Well spoken. TOTALLY on the mark.

  4. Debbie Doughty October 6, 2010 at 4:02 pm -

    Well said and simply put. Why is it we humans try to make this so complicated when it isn’t?

  5. Anonymous October 6, 2010 at 4:46 pm -

    good post. definitely agree. i try to buy local first and organic if the price makes sense. i find grocery stores use ‘organic’ as a means to pad their bottom line and completely overprice it. i will buy a local product over an organic one from hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away.

    My dad use to buy from a fully organic produce place which stocked product from all over the world. I understand the reasoning behind buying organic but do you really need to buy organic peppers from chile??

    Mike you’re lucky as almost everything grows in Cali.

  6. Mike Lieberman October 7, 2010 at 12:39 am -

    Yea I hear ya. Crazy part is that yes almost everything grows in Cali (and SoCal) yet people still go to the grocery stores to buy the lame imported stuff.

    At the least the peppers are coming from this hemisphere. Most peppers that I’ve come across have been from Israel.

  7. Mike Lieberman October 7, 2010 at 12:39 am -

    Because we are marketed and told otherwise.

  8. Mike Lieberman October 7, 2010 at 12:39 am -

    Aww thanks chica.

  9. Mike Lieberman October 7, 2010 at 12:39 am -

    I’m in SoCal bro. I live with my shirt off. Get your ass down here.

  10. Mike Lieberman October 7, 2010 at 12:41 am -

    Spot on sister. The word “organic” represents something to me more than a label. It’s not treating the land and produce moving forward with sprays and chemicals.

    We have so degraded our lands and soil that it is nearly impossible to be truly “organic” like you said. I think this might be the topic for another post. Thanks for the inspiration.

  11. Ms. Adventuress October 7, 2010 at 9:30 am -

    Exactly. Well shared. Remove chemicals, artificial additives and preservatives from your diet and see the symptoms of allergies, asthma, etc. disappear, too. Keep up the great work.

  12. Ms. Adventuress October 7, 2010 at 9:33 am -

    Maria wrote a great post about this…

    http://www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com/make-mine-organic/

  13. Mike Lieberman October 7, 2010 at 3:16 pm -

    Thanks. It most certainly will.

  14. Anonymous October 8, 2010 at 3:04 pm -

    Thank you for this! I totally agree – we’re so ready to treat our bodies with pills while eating total crap.

  15. Linda DiBella October 8, 2010 at 3:42 pm -

    I absolutely agree. We can either pay for it now or pay for it later with other healthcare bills. We are not disposable. We can’t trade our bodies in for new models with these break down. We only get one; therefore, I want to treat this body the best way possible so that it will treat me well right back. And when I feel great, everything else in my life is so much better.

  16. Mike Lieberman October 8, 2010 at 4:57 pm -

    I don’t get it either. There is such a disconnect.

  17. Mike Lieberman October 8, 2010 at 4:58 pm -

    So true. We dont’ get to trade in for new models…yet.

  18. Gardensuccess October 11, 2010 at 8:43 pm -

    It’s one thing to say that you don’t want chemicals in your food – it’s another to look at your bug-ravished garden and think that there’s anything worth eating left. So then this year just as I was about to go down the pesticide path my wife tells me she heard that if you put moth balls in the garden it keeps the bugs away. The results were nothing less than astonishing! One application of moth balls sprinkled around the garden lasted the entire season without having to spray or dust the food and virtually no bug problem with the vegetables. Hope others benefit from this as well.

  19. Mike Lieberman October 12, 2010 at 12:57 am -

    That’s interesting. Never heard of that one before.

  20. MyCollegesandCareers October 18, 2010 at 10:28 pm -

    I’ve heard terrible stories about children from third world countries being accidentally sprayed by pesticide planes and dying. These chemicals are harmful for our bodies, hands down.

  21. Mike Lieberman October 19, 2010 at 12:01 am -

    That wouldn’t surprise me too much .Such a shame.

  22. Marissabmont October 20, 2010 at 2:44 pm -

    First of all, if you think large scale organic farming is done without pesticides you are sadly mistaken. The pesticides used are organic, but more toxic and environmentally unsound than the newer available pesticides on ‘regular’ crops. ‘Organic’ is a bullshit label that is nothing more than a marketing tool. Organic crops do use synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides. Otherwise there’s no way to produce enough food to meet the market demands. While you can grow tomatoes on your porch in buckets without using any synthetic (please stop using the word ‘chemical’ when you mean synthetic, everything is made of chemicals, even us) elements it’s simply not possible for that to be done on a large scale and if you think otherwise you are sadly deluded and have bought into the organic hype.

    Secondly, the saying is “couldn’t care less” not “could careless”. Assuming the ‘careless’ was a typo and you meant a space to be there, it still doesn’t make any sense. You’re saying that you could, in fact, care less about it than you already do which means you care, which negates your point entirely.

  23. Mike Lieberman October 20, 2010 at 2:49 pm -

    Marissa. Your comment and insight is greatly appreciated. I by no means think chemicals (yes I’ll keep using that word) aren’t used or a part of the crops that I purchase.

    “Organic” in the sense of the USDA definition is a complete marketing tool and business. When I say organic I mean not using the chemicals and sprays that are used by the large scale farms.

    It is a relatively new way of farming that just doesn’t make sense to me.

    Your comment and correction of my grammar is very much appreciated to me.

  24. Dickers June 11, 2011 at 1:36 am -

    Exactly!  I think a lot of people probably don’t consider it when they eat their food because they say “oh, I wash the produce”.  What they don’t realize is that the ground it’s been growing in is full of this poison, so it permeates to the cellular level of the plant.  That then gets processed in our bodies down to a cellular level. Simply put – garbage in, garbage out.

  25. Sabrina Smith Saxon June 11, 2011 at 1:52 am -

    Hear! Hear! I 100% agree … Now I need to get 100% on board … I am still working on getting off the horrible diet I have been on …. Also since I still do not know exactly where I am going to be for good here in Vermont and I want a garden, I am starting to look at tag sales to start collecting suitable containers. I shy away from plastic because of being unsure of what has bpa in it … Just started seeing a doc for my fibromyalgia and arthritis, and he is definitely wanting to help me get healthy the healthy way … I will get better and getting back to the basics with my diet is a necessity toward achieving that … Along with natural exercise …. Thank you for this post! Shared on facebook … Retweeted on Twitter ….

  26. Mike Lieberman June 13, 2011 at 12:19 am -

    Exactly. We care more about the gas we put in our cars, then food in our bodies.

  27. Mike Lieberman June 13, 2011 at 12:20 am -

    Thank you Sabrina and good for you for taking your health back into your own hands. That’s what’s up!

  28. Mike Lieberman July 11, 2011 at 1:36 pm -

    Your mind and your body are the best things you can invest in!

  29. Mike Lieberman August 4, 2011 at 12:24 am -

    My problem isn’t with science per se, it is with the science reports that are pushed upon us. They are funded by companies who have a vested interest in the results and the power to get those results to the masses. The independent studies don’t have that power. 

    Thanks for your comment and adding to the discussion.

  30. Judith Kingsbury August 13, 2011 at 10:29 pm -

    As you say, cheap health insurance!

  31. Mike Lieberman August 15, 2011 at 12:06 am -

    No doubt.

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