[becky]

Now that Kevin has finally 'guilted' me into buying only organic dairy products for my two year old...I am wondering where in the world you can buy this stuff without it costing an arm and a leg?

My child eats tons of yogurt and cheese...not much milk. The "Yo Baby" organic yogurt costs about $3.98 for a six pack at Kroger...that lasts about 2 days in my house.

Any ideas or suggestions of how I can do this and still afford to feed my other 4 children as well??

[Ozwald]

Maybe Trader Joe's would be a good place to look for these items. Their prices are usually better than Krogers. I'm not sure if there are Trader Joe's in Atlanta but my guess would be yes.

Jen

[KSAB]

Hi
If anybody knows of places in Houston, Texas that sell
organic please let me know. Krogers is very high

thanks
sarah

[Anigel]

Where are you located? I have found that here in FL, both Publix and Albertsons have a collection of organic milk products. I personally have found Publix to be better, for they have a section in both the Fruits/Veggies, and the dairy sections, as well as an whole section set aside to whole grains, and other natural products.

Did you try your yellow pages? I would look up organic. You might also sniff around the famers markets. I have found that a handful will be organic growers. The farmers with the organic signs would be the ones to ask about organic dairies in your area. Maybe it's only one guy with a cow, but is FRESH!

Health food stores are another good one to check. If they don't have what you want. Ask, maybe they can tell you someone else, or they can get it for you.

Be mindful of the names on the products you are buying. When I lived in MI, the local grower would put his name on those little stickers on the produce. You can then look up the name, or sometimes the phone # is right there.

As for cost, the best you can do is shop around.

Let me know if any more of this info in my head will help you!

[holliam]

Whole Foods, which is headquartered in Austin, TX carries organic dairy. They have stores all over the US, including GA, Becky!

[Edited To Remove the URL to a Retailers Website]

Holli


Sorry, nope on the URL, but its easy to search/find. Google “WholeFoods”

[KevinK]

I am proud to have guilted you! Holli gave you the best store for organics - Whole Foods. That's where I do all my shopping (incidentally, it's a great stock to invest in. It's almost doubled in the past 18 months and seems to be Dubya-proof, Oooops, I mean recession proof. And they are a phenomenal company so far as labor and environmental policies are concerned).

I noticed something interesting while shopping with my mom at a normal grocery store last week. The normal stores (Kroger, Safeway, etc) charge a lot more for organics than the organic focused stores do. I saw heads of organic butter leaf lettuce going for $2.49 when I pay $1.50 at Whole Foods. ONe exception is baby formula, where I can get my organic formula at Safeway for $5/can less than at Whole Foods.

Also, if organics are too costly on dairy, you may be able to find products that are not organic but do not contain rGBH (the Bovine Growth Hormone).

Some other Whole Foods types chains are Wild Oats market and Trader Joes (as mentioned) does sell some stuff. Though I find Trader Joe's to be pricy for fresh dairy and vegetables. No better place for wine though (if you're following all of my wonderful adivice)!

Good for you Becky!

-Kevin

[becky]

We aren't allowed to post URLs...but give it a try...all they can do is remove it!

I know there are Whole Foods in Atlanta...but the closest one is about 30 minutes away! I think I'll try Publix and see if they are cheaper than Kroger.

[becky]

I must have missed the wine advice...care to elaborate?

[KevinK]

On the wine, I believe my recommendation on how to get out of PGN quickly once called for acts of kindness, Grateful Dead tunes, and a glass of good cabernet - worked for me anyway.

ON this organic foods thing. Strangley enough I just got my daily e-mail from the NRA (Restaurants not rifles for this peacenik). It hada link to a story about a new grocery store specifically trying to offer cheaper organics. I'll try the URL to the news story, if it gets removed, it is in the Detroit News.

http://www.detnews.com/2004/business...f02-100202.htm

But Becky, my Whole Foods is about 20 miles away. So my Saturday tradition is to take Isabel out to the park for a while to play, and the do the grocery shopping. But I warn you, if you start shopping there for meats, dairy and produce, you will have a very hard time ever buying that stuff from a normal store again.

And a funny organic romaine story.... Week after week, I buy a head of organic lettuce, the sutff with no pesticides, at Whole Foods. Never once have I found a bug in it. Then a couple of months ago I was too busy two weeks in a row to trek to Whole Foods so I went to Safeway. Both times - bugs in the conventional romaine. SO what are all those pesticides good for anyway?!

For the record, I own a grand total of 75 shares of Whole Foods and don't in any work for them (though I have many friends who do). So my promoting of them is strictly because they offer the best darn quality and they are a great, socially progressive company.

-Kevin

[Shoshana]

The only organic grocery store in the Milwaukee area is Outpost. They have a great bulk section, and the produce looks teriffic. My friends who are familiar with Trader Joes said that the prices are a bit higher on most things except the bulk products.

I have just started to feed Xiomara. Yesterday at the pediatrician's, I told her I was making the baby food (yup, my friends would never believe it!) and she told me that I --couldn't-- unless I was using organics (which I am).

Now, Kevin - would you like to expound about the benefits of organic formula? I really don't want to know the answer, but I'm sure there's a good response. Just learning about the ARA & DHA (genetically engineered from micro- and soil-fungus) that's found in the 'top-of-the-line' formulas was enough to make me switch.

[momofdva]

we use organic babe formula too! and love it! doesnt stink, easy on the tummies!
you can buy it at organicbebe online
its called natures one-"baby's only" toddler formula

blessings,
momofdva

[jedatu]

Try to find a small health/organic food store. Our grocery stores sell half gallons of organic milk for $4 and the health food store sells a gallon for $5. They also sell yogurt and kefier(which I prefer my son to have over yogurt) at lower costs.

I am waiting impatiently for Whole foods to set up shop in my city. Hello, we are the second largest city in the state of Michigan!


Keri

[KevinK]

We're using Horizon Organic Formula, which is currently only available on the left coast. As for the benefits, it all depends on what your philosophy is. The short answer is lord knows. Most of the problems with conventional foods are pretty new as mass-agriculture, GMOs, etc etc are new to the world. So the impact of frankenfoods has yet to be seen. What I can say is that the rGBH is bad bad bad and it is in almost all non-organic dairy. It is made with no pesticides (common in the feed of the cows that make the milk that gets used in formula), no hormones, and no anti-biotics. This is also true for the oils that go into formulas.

There is also an argument for organics overall outside of the health effects of what you eat. Organic farming is sustainable agriculture. They don't/can't cram thousands of chickens into tiny pens/cages. They utilize crop rotations and natural means to control pests and keep soils nourished. They don't take the sewage sludge created from human waste and pour it all over crops and call it fertilizer. Etc etc etc. Conventional farming practices and mass agriculture are destroying water supplies (from pesticides or excessive animal wastes), family farms, and more while they create less healthy products. This is leading to them wanting to do things like irradiate meats which further destroys the nutritional content of foods (and public schools are currently the guniea pigs for this).

In short, we have a food supply system that has risks which are easily avoidable through organic, sustainable agriculture. But instead of doing what makes sense, the food industry (of which I am a part) is choosing to mess with god's will through GMOs, irraditaion, etc etc. These things will create many problems in the years to come. IMHO, we will see further increases in obesity and diabetes (caused by processed foods to a large degree along with behavior issues), growth rates in previously rare cancers (from the pesticides and hormones), increased levels of allergies (from the GMOs), super bacteria (from the antibiotics - McDonald's stopped allowing its cattle to be treated with Cipro because the Feds were afraid people would become immune to the Anthrax cure), super insect bugs (the impact of pests becoming resistant to pesticides), weeds that destroy farms (from the pesticides that are bred into the GMOs), and I could go on.

To me, organics is part of a lifestyle decision for those of us who believe in a holisitic diet and existence. When it comes to dairy and meat, I believe there are serious health reasons to buy organic/free range because of the hormones and antibiotics. But when it comes to overall, it is to support a sustainable society so that our children's children have a decent world to live in.

I will add one thing to the critics of the need for organics. My father in law is a definitive Kansas redneck. He grew up on a farm and couldn;t care less about all the hippie crap that comes from me. But when I gave him a taste of organic milk he said "now that's what I remember milk tasting like". Same goes for eggs and chicken. And once you start eating organics, you can tell a difference.

My latest discovery - organic ketchup. We got a bottle (Muir Farms brand I think) and I swear it is 1000% better tasting than Heinz.

My tres quetzales....

-Kevin

[diane in IL]

Great post Kevin! Our family also eats strictly organic dairy. Sometimes it kills me to spend the extra money... (milk at Krogers is almost 3 times the price of non-organic). However, after reading all these posts it makes me proud and reaffirms our decision to buy organic.

diane in IL

[beanmollybean]

Here is another vote for Whole Foods. The one here is about 45 minutes away and I hate having cold products in my car that long.... so on short trips, there is a Food Co-Op about 20 minutes away that works out in a pinch.