The 80/20 Rule for Organics

People often think that if you choose to buy or organic then it is an all or nothing venture. I think it is practically impossible to eat totally organic if you ever want to enjoy yourself. Now, I am not advocating for conventional* food products; I am just saying you can't expect to always eat organic. I enjoy eating out, eating at friends/family houses, and traveling too much to be able to stick to organic all the time.

What made me think of this topic was watching my husband indulge in some non-organic egg nog this morning. At the store they were out of the organic version so he picked up some conventional*. In this case it was non-organic or nothing.

Now, if the choice is organic or conventional* I am going to choose organic every time. However, if the choice is conventional or nothing then I am going to be okay with non-organic (conventional*). I think it is unrealistic to expect to eat 100% organic all the time. The idea is to limit exposure to the toxins that may be present in conventional* produces/foods.

The best way to make sure that most of your food is organic is to eat whole foods and buy organic as you can. Vote with your dollars (meaning the more organic you buy, the more stores are likely to make/keep organic available).

*CONVENTIONAL - Let's talk about the term conventional. I use this for lack of a better term. The idea that conventional is non-organic has always seemed strange to me because technically all farming was originally organic. The heavy use of pesticides, herbicides, and big agriculture chemicals is relatively new. It seems to me that organic should be conventional and we should call non-organic modern or unnatural.