I Ain’t No Doctor

a weekly health column by charles faris, hhc

Dear Chas,

I’m afraid of conventional food, yet i don’t have the scratch necessary to buy all organic. What can i do? Eating is becoming very difficult for me.
—Chicken Little

Dear Chicken,
Thanks for your question, which in one variation or another is on many a mind these days. Fear, safety, economic limitation, difficulty…you’ve just about covered the current zeitgeist. Bearing the disclaimer of the non-doc in mind, let’s see where we can get with this today, along with the help of a bit of poetry by Walt Kelly.

The Prince of Pompadoodle

The Prince of Pompadoodle
     Was the safest man alive.
Each day he wrote how long he’d lived
     And multiplied by five.

So, Chicken, to better help you out I’ve broken your quandary down into three parts:

1. You are afraid of conventional food, and have a vision of safety in organic food.
2. You can’t toe the line with the vision (organic is too expensive).
3. Your life is now more difficult…this conflict is creating existential issues around food, finances, and survival.

As you can see, your vision is in conflict with your budget, leading to the sensation that life is difficult. By looking at the vision then, and the budget, we can tackle this issue from both sides, and hopefully rescue you from this fear of food, and offer you a finer fate than the one that awaits our good prince.

Re-Define your Vision:

The Prince of Pompadoodle
     Called in the castle sage
For his advice in this pursuit
     Of long and fulsome age.

Let’s start by looking at the object of your fear, conventional food. One way to lessen this fear is to recognize that it’s not just conventional vs. organic out there. If you are looking to avoid harmful chemicals, as i assume you are, then the scope of your options is much larger than the rigid dichotomy you have outlined.

Local Food

One good place to look for options beyond convention and organic is the world of local food. Just down the road from you there is a small farmer using gentler methods than the large industrial method farmers who are shipping food thousands of miles to just about every grocery store in America.

Many of these farmers utilize Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, a method of refraining from the use of harmful pesticides unless absolutely necessary to protect the harvest. Farmers working with IPM methods check their crops regularly for insect infestation and use many of the beneficial practices of organic farming, often cutting down their pesticide use by 30 to 75 percent.

Consumer Supported Agriculture

An even better option, both chemically and financially, is to find a local CSA. 

 The farmers at your local CSA are not only local, thereby cutting down on large scale shipping and all of the associated environmental and financial costs, they are also most likely organic in practice, and affordable in the extreme. Depending on where you live, you can usually get six months worth of vegetables, enough for a family of four, for around $600. 

Of course, you aren’t likely to get all of your food from that local farmer, so let’s take a closer look at the food at your local market.

The Scale of Conventional Food

The Prince of Pompadoodle
     Sent his every friend away
And sat alone, safe, locked alive,
     To count another day.

In the world of conventional food, there are the usual suspects, and then there are the fairly innocuous, as grouped together by greater and lesser levels of pesticide use and residue. Using this parameter, you can look at your food choices this way:

Save Your Health: must buy organic

Meat, Poultry, Dairy, Eggs
Peaches, Apricots, Nectarines
Apples, Pears
Strawberries, Raspberries, Cherries 
Grapes, Raisins
Mexican Cantaloupe
Potatoes, Green Beans, Winter Squash
Spinach, Bell Peppers, Celery

These foods are the ones to worry about, if worry you must, so avoid buying conventional as much as possible. If you can’t get them from your CSA or another local farmer then use your organic budget for these babies. The good news is that it’s a fairly short list, and there are a lot of other foods that don’t have a history of heavy pesticide use, such as those in the following group.

Save Your Cash: buy conventional

avocado, pineapples, and mangoes,
kiwi, bananas, 
onions, cabbage, broccoli, and eggplant
frozen sweet corn and sweet peas, 
asparagus

Getting Closer to Your Food

The Prince of Pompadoodle
     May hoard each empty hour,
But none can know; no word comes from
     The silent, stony tower.

In this world of food safety, of letting go of food fear, the biggest message seems to be closer is better. Buying local and in season are the two best ways to help out yourself and the rest of the planet, assuming that you are buying. The ultimate answer, though, is to skip the buying altogether and put a shovel to the earth and grow your own. 

According to John Jeavons of Ecology Action of the Midpeninsula, a research mini-farm located in Willits California, 100 square feet of land is enough to grow all the vegetables and soft fruits a single person will need for a year. And even if you don’t have a diggable yard to work with, scout around. Many cities and towns have community gardens where for a small fee you can get a plot to call your own. Most of these gardens also ban the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

You might also consider asking friends and neighbors who already have vegetable gardens if you could join them in the labor and the harvest. And if they don’t have anything growing yet, they may just be lacking the initiative. This could be a great way to increase your sense of community while changing the face of your neighborhood and increasing habitat for birds, butterflies, and many other creatures being crowded out by yawns of lawns.

If you still can’t find any land to till, consider container gardening. Many tasty and abundant crops can be grown this way, such as tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and lettuces, and green beans. A sunny porch or deck is all you need to get some super-local super-fresh super-organic goodies right outside your door.

From Fear to Flourish

Buying smart, buying local, and growing our own are all great ways to protect ourselves while still living a vibrant life full of love and laughter and experience. Live smart and flexible, working with the spirit rather than the letter of our law, and avoid the example of the Prince of Pompadoodle. Our fears are with us for a reason. Let’s use them to help us increase the enjoyment of our lives.

Charles Faris, hhc

“i ain’t no doctor”

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