27 replies to this topic

[Iraq Lobstah]

i Only buy organic if I go to the farm, or if my market is out of what I’m looking for, and the organic section is my only resort...IE I bought organic green onions because they ran out of non organic ones

[BuxomBrewster]

Some of that is the chemicals they put on the produce to keep them from sprouting.  Organic potatoes don't have sprout inhibitors on them.  I buy them for this reason, but it means they don't last as long.  I'm OK with that.  I haven't noticed a big difference in apples, other than the girl who lived with us got sick from the non-organic ones, so we had to buy organic apples.  

 

It sounds like your market doesn't have the best handling/transportation for organic produce.  I buy a lot of Earthbound Farms produce, a big national chain, and that stuff lasts a decent amount of time.  Greens don't last long, but most everything else does.  

[MyaCullen]

I don't think I've ever knowingly bought organic produce, but if this is true then WTF are they doing to 'regular' produce to make it last 5 times as long?

and what might that do to you?

[MyaCullen]

i Only buy organic if I go to the farm, or if my market is out of what I’m looking for, and the organic section is my only resort...IE I bought organic green onions because they ran out of non organic ones

it could be partly that the organic version is sitting on the shelf longer before you buy it, it does cost more after all, so perhaps turnover is a lot lower

[Iraq Lobstah]

it could be partly that the organic version is sitting on the shelf longer before you buy it, it does cost more after all, so perhaps turnover is a lot lower

Actually they were the same price as non organic

[MyaCullen]

Actually they were the same price as non organic

huh, I usually see about 25-50 % above 

[Stains_not_here_man]

I wonder how much of food spoilage is caused by bacteria deposited by insects or fungal molds and whether the use of pesticides and fungicides leads to longer shelf life?

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of organic produce doesn't look as good even from the get go. The other day I was in a store and they had organic lemons right next to non organic. The difference was striking... the organic lemons were smaller, less bright yellow, and had lots more brown spots.

I'm not anti organic at all, and certain things are superior when they're organic - berries come to mind. But sometimes the experience is less than stellar.

[BuxomBrewster]

You need a new store.  The organic produce almost always looks better than the non organic where I shop.  The organic green onions are crisp, large, beautiful and the non-organic are small and limp.  The swiss chard is beautiful.  The cauliflower is usually smaller, but just as pretty.  Broccoli looks the same.  I love going to a place in northern MI called Arianna's, and Whole Foods is similar where you walk in and everything is organic and it is all beautiful.  

 

We used to have the problem that the organic stuff looked bad.  They were keeping it around too long, partially due to low turn around, partially because they just didn't care.  Now that they have competition from Meijer, they all stepped up their game.