[lilcoco]

Just wondering, how do some of you vegans feel about organic versus non-organic food? Are any of you totally organic? Also, what about vegan foods, such as cereal, which are made by companies such as proctor and gamble who do extensive animal testing?

 

[SeaSiren]

I buy organic when available. I am striving towards "organic or do without", my diet is constantly evolving.

 

[froggythefrog]

I buy organic when I can. Philosophically, I would buy products from mainstream companies in order to encourage them to provide more vegan/organic/green products to the mainstream market. I tend not to be very attracted to mainstream brands, though.

 

[strwbryfields42]

I prefer organic, and I will buy it when I can afford it. I like the idea of knowing that what I choose to eat is not being pumped with who knows what. I would like to be compleatly organic, but it's expensive.

 

[meatless]

We buy about 75% organic in our household... the last 25% is either because it's not available in organic here, or because it's so much more expensive we can't really justify it. Although some of the things we buy organic are up to 4-5 times more expensive than the non-organic version. That's about as high as I'll go.

 

[synergy]

I am moving towards more and more organic. It seems like the more I learn about non-organic products, the easier it is to justify the expense of organic.

 

[jeff_veg]

I buy organic whenever I can. Sometimes I will look at the cost and say no... it all sort of depends on my mood and how much money I have been spending lately. The things that I buy the most in organic tend to be pre-packaged foods, because the non-organic versions of such things are usually laced with all sorts of crap.<br><br><br><br>
As for fruits and veggies, I read that following items should be bought in organic as often as possible:<br><br><br><br>
"peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach, and strawberries."<br><br><br><br>
These items have the most pesticides found on them based on laboratory studies.<br><br><br><br>
"While washing fresh produce may help reduce pesticide residues, it clearly does not eliminate them," says EVG. "Nonetheless, produce should be washed before it is eaten because washing does reduce levels of some pesticides. However, other pesticides are taken up internally in the plant, are in the fruit, and cannot be washed off. Others are formulated to bind to the surface of the crop and do not easily wash off. Peeling reduces exposures, but valuable nutrients often go down the drain with the peel."<br><br><br><br>
source: <a href="http://www.vegparadise.com/news58.html" target="_blank">http://www.vegparadise.com/news58.html</a>

 

[Ravenfire]

I buy organics as much as possible, not only are they better for you but they taste so much better as well. Some items are out of my price range, but I do have a list of foods that I will only buy organic. I also stay away from companies like Procter & Gamble. I don't really eat processed foods anyway but I wouldn't feel good about myself if I gave a company like that my money.

 

[Ludi]

The ironic thing is organic vegetables are fertilized with more products from the dead animal industry than non-organic are. Non-organic may have no animal products used on them at all, whereas organic may have meat and blood meal, fish meal, or feedlot manure used to fertilize them.

 

[honeybunch2k6]

I buy organic when I can. It depends on how much money I have. Unfortunately, I live in an area where fast food is the emphasis not health food (gee, I wonder if that's why my state is the fattest in the nation...) so I don't get the opportunity to buy much organic food. I'd prefer to buy organic b/c supposedly it's better for the environment.<br><br><br><br>
As far as cereal goes, I don't eat it unless it's organic. All or most Kelloggs and Post cereals contain genetically modified ingredients, so I don't eat them at all. Kelloggs is phasing out gm foods in Europe but is NOT doing the same thing with the food sold to American consumers. I only eat russet potatoes that are organic, and same for carrots. Supposedly since carrots are in the ground they soak up a lot of pesticides.<br><br><br><br>
I don't eat any processed food b/c of gm ingredients not too mention that they are generally unhealthy anyway.<br><br><br><br>
I'm trying to grow my some of my food now, since that's just about the only way to be 100% sure what's goin on with my food.

 

[zoebird]

i buy all organic and i do not consume processed foods like cereal. i do consume some processed foods made my well respected companies (mostly limited to pasta sauce, pasta, and sprouted grain bread).