Sitting on the Organic Fence

Shortly after the label "organic" became official, I considered if buying strictly organic was for me and mine. My friends were doing it. They said you could taste the difference in the meat. After sifting through the internet's most popular opinions, I decided that no matter what someone thinks wholeheartedly, there is an opposite and equally strong opinion that looks just as sound. I wasn't sold.

I was annoyed, because I'm frugal, and I believed if our organic farmers and producers would band together in a campaign to lower prices, they'd win a whole lot of fence-sitters like myself, making more money in the long run. In other words, I was doubtful, and I was being a little cheap.

Living in California, I've slowly come around to buying a lot more organic, not because I'm entirely sold on it, but because I support the idea of living closer to nature. We're really spoiled out here. The food selection alone is enough to make me stay, and eating in season is not a terrible challenge on the West Coast. (When we visited family in Arkansas, a bag of raw almonds at the health food store was $10. They need a Trader Joe's.) I buy milk, butter, eggs and most of my meat without hormones, antibiotics, preservatives, nitrates, hydrogenated hoolabaloo... and organic grapes, apples, carrots, strawberries... because we eat a lot of them. Thanks to Trader Joe's the prices don't hurt. I follow Jose Bove not because I'm an extremist, but it takes a louder mouth to make a small, necessary change. (And his kind of bravado gives me a chuckle.)

Now meat cloning may start up in full swing. FDA Food Safety Chief says they can't "imagine" how this food could possibly be unsafe. What? I'm still upset about the margarine I grew up eating. It was "edible". It slid down the throat much like butter. But it didn't occur to anyone then that the body wouldn't know how to process it. Now that the mainstream is finding out, it will probably still take years to make it illegal.

There's an older man in our family who doesn't believe we belonged on the moon. I was young when he said it and had never heard this notion. When I asked him why, I could tell he didn't want to talk about it. I got the impression that he'd shared the opinion with his cronies and regretted it. He believed it went against God for us to go into outer space. I was hearing this at a time when I wanted to purchase a shuttle ticket myself. But I feel like him now. I'm not old, but old fashioned.

If the selling of cloned animals' offspring hits the mainstream, and assuming the official term "organic" gets tweaked to exclude cloning, it could be a huge boost to organic producers. Let's hope they pass some savings on to us.