Advice on going organic?

[Weta]

My new year's resolution is to start eating more organic food - any advice on where to start, and how to do it without breaking the bank (especially in terms of changing eating habits)?

I live in France so there's no point giving me names of specific shops or products, it's more just general approach/mindset stuff I'm after.

I've found a company that will deliver organic fruit & veg (either a set box or just individual items) to somewhere 5 mins' walk from where I live so thought I'd start with that, and also get organic milk from the supermarket.

Thanks

Organic veg box is a great way to start, and I'd also agree with the milk.

Can you track down an organic meat supplier who you can buy directly from and in bulk (assuming you have freezer space)?

I would always buy organic bread too, here in the UK, but the French approach is probably rather different.

I would say there's not much point bothering with organic processed foods.

I did a bit of research a while ago to try to decide what was important to buy organic and decided on the following (based on not terribly scientific research conducted on the internet):

• root veg - not so important, so the first thing to compromise on. They (apparently) tend to be hardier and because they are not directly sprayed they need and absorb less crap. Although organic carrots are far nicer.
• leafy veg - in the case of hardy seasonal crops, less crucial, but lettuce, spinach etc, always organic
• meat - always organic. as it's further up the food chain the concentration of any chemicals is likely to be higher
• fish - more concerned about ethical catching practices, and organic by definition means farmed, so less concerned about this
• fruit - organic where possible, due to sprays, but will choose non-organic local in season produce over organic foreign out of season. Fruit that needs peeling less of a concern as less crap absorbed into flesh of fruit
• bread, flour etc - organic if not toooooo expensive. could never really find definitive answers over whether organic grains made a massive difference
• tinned food - less concerned about organic, but organic often exactly the same price for some reason. Apparently there is less need to force growth and uniformity with tinned produce, and it tends to be cleaned more thoroughly, as surface appearance is less important.

HTH.

How you prioritise depends a bit on why you want to go organic.

There are several reasons people cite:

• personal health by avoiding pesticides and additives
• save the world by reducing pesticides etc
• more ethical: fairtrade/animal welfare
• tastier food

If you want to avoid eating pesticides, for example, then you should go organic on stuff that is heaving with them. This is specific veg and meat. Eg relatively speaking lamb is lower in artificial stuff than beef; beef is fed more artificially and often raised indoors (you can't raise a fat steer on grass alone, whereas sheep eat much more grass and so forth. I am simplifying hugely here). Similarly salad veg are often chemically raised, whereas field veg are less so (but by no means natural in tehmselves). But this involves lots of research and consideration.

AND organic is not necessarily low food miles or local. But there again food flowin in from africa uses less power than food raised in greenhouses in Holland.

I use my breadmaker and make fresh cheap organic bread that is fabulous. I am just oging to fill it up now for the morning.

Thanks for your messages.
MTA, my reasons are probably the ones you give, fairly much in that order - obviously tastier food would be nice, but I'm prepared for it to be less tasty because of not having additives etc in some cases.

The fruit and veg place I have found delivers mainly local organic produce, with some other bits from Italy and Spain (so not terribly far as we are in the south of France) - plus bananas, which I don't think my kids could cope without at the moment!

Haven't investigated the meat side of things yet, though unfortunately don't have a lot of freezer space, partly as DS1 is very allergic to dairy so it tends to be full of meals I've made for him to take to school! The price terrifies me as I already find meat very expensive here.

Apparently organic bread is hard to find, but I do have a breadmaker so will think about doing it that way (plus I think what the baker does is pretty good, except for pesticides on the wheat etc).