What to Buy? Organic Olive Oil?
DH’s question was ever more insistent: “Are you sure you want the organic olive oil?”
It wasn’t until I visited Whole Foods that I realized why he was asking. Organic olive oil is $12.99 a bottle versus $7.99 for the conventional, store brand 365 Everyday Value line of olive oil. At the rate we plow through olive oil (close to two bottles per month), that’s a price premium of $120 per year for organic versus conventional olive oil. And with recent price increases pushing the price of just a half gallon of organic milk to $4.19 at our local Giant grocery store, it’s important to make sure we’re spending money on the right types of organic foods.
That’s when I was reminded of a fantastic resource: the Environmental Working Group’s list of the “dirty dozen” most pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables - the ones you should always buy organic. Olives don’t even make the broader list of 43 fruits and veggies surveyed. That made my decision easy - pass on the organic olive oil and save the money for our ever increasing organic milk bill!
Check out the “dirty dozen” and the “cleanest 12″ lists here - you can download a wallet card to carry with you to the market.
– Lynn
Popularity: 48% [?]
Filed under Food, Organic Prices, Organic Product Needs, Organics vs. Conventional Foods | |6 Responses to “What to Buy? Organic Olive Oil?”
Leave a Reply
My StumbleUpon Page
Ah, so sorry to be the expensive naysayer (go to Safeway, they have the best deal on organic olive oil around here, better than Trader Joe’s even, and it was on special a couple days ago) — but toxins accumulate in fat. You know, persistent organic pollutants like pcbs? the reason they are more prevalent higher up the food chain is that they stick in the fat of each animal, we gobble it up, bingo, we are stuck with it. until our poor babies get the highest possible load of toxins (first baby gets mom’s lifetime burden). It’s why Sandra Steingraber is so concerned about enviro pollutants as they impact breastmilk. Here’s a link about mother polar bears that explains the basics: http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/essay_calder.html
Thanks for pointing this out. Funny, when I researched the benefits of organic olive oil, taste came up as the primary benefit. Of course the EWG “Dirty Dozen” list only talks about pesticide residue on fresh fruits and veggies, not PCBs in olive oil, or even phtalates - which I found turned up in one study as well. Yeesh. You shouldn’t need a research degree to figure out what’s healthy to eat — but that’s back to one of the reasons I started OrganicMania. Thanks, Mamabird, for being such a loyal and attentive participant in this community! — Lynn
On the other hand, most of us have a difficult choice when at the grocery store. It is extremely helpful to know just when the purchase of organics is important and when ‘traditional’ foods will suffice. I wish our income structure and our food economy was such that we were not always balancing affordability against real health concerns.
Thanks Lynn, your links to the dirty dozen was extremely useful and now I’ll be extra careful about my peaches!
You know, getting a listing of when grocery stores are running organics specials would also be helpful. If I run across any information like this, do you have a place for me to post it?
Hi Sue, thanks for your comments. I agree about the terrible balance between health concerns and affordabilty - and it’s been even worse in the auto industry! I hate the way safety features seem to always be introduced in luxury cars before trickling their way down to the masses. And YES re the specials - just email me! — Lynn
Hey~ Speaking of organic milk— Trader Joe’s sells a gallon of organic whole milk for $5.69 (a right bargain compared to Horizon half-gallons); any thoughts/reviews/reasons why TJ’s brand may not be as good as Horizon (or any other name brand)?
Hi, Allison, thanks for stopping by. Actually, as Sue pointed out - boy, it’s EXCITING to see that readers are responding to each others comments!! - TJ’s house brand ranks higher than Horizon on the Cornucopia Institute’s Organic Dairy Report. See: http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html . For me, the choice between TJ’s and Giant often boils down to the traffic patterns on our clogged local roads. I had been going to MOM’s for organic milk - there’s was the best deal at $4.99 per gallon, but recently the price was raised to the same $5.69 level (give or take a dime) that you found at TJ’s. — Lynn
Speaking of Whole Foods, not all Whole Foods sell local produce when they claim they do.
“Tuscaloosa farmer sues Whole Foods over local supplier campaign”
http://www.al.com/business/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/business/1200475053208030.xml&coll=2
Hi Nicholas, thanks for stopping by. Well, I read the article, which discusses how a farmer claims pictures were taken of his farm and posted on the Whole Foods site but Whole Foods allegedly never purchased his crops. I find it hard to believe that WF would intentionally risk their brand image over something like this. If in fact this is true, my bet is that it was a (gasp) mistake in the WF marketing department that caused the pix to be posted before the deals were consummated to buy his crops. — Lynn
Hey Allison,
I found this website helpful in evaluating organic milk labels:
http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/index.html
It does seem to indicate that TJs organic milk is slightly better than Horizon but this may be a sliding scale.
Sue - thanks for passing along the tip to Allison! — Lynn
Thanks~ Sorry I missed Sue’s link the first time!
ps- I do like this blog an awful lot!!
I’m glad you like it, Allison! Please pass the word along to your friends! — Lynn