When I was first introduced to the term ‘organic’, it came by way of several steaks, given kindly by a hippy neighbour who played guitar, gave massages and thought she’d offer a meal to us as my mother had just passed away and we assume thought Dad couldn’t find his way around a kitchen.
This was circa 2002 and the steaks went in the bin.
I think it was ignorance more than anything; my Dad (and to be fair, moi) were perhaps convinced the steaks would be heaving with bugs, dirt and grime and we weren’t going to touch them with a barge pole.
So what turns the non-organic believer into the organic believer?
Well organic has grown into a somewhat evolutionally companion for me; perhaps the notion of ‘slightly healthier’ for you, more natural, home-grown, created, and picked from Mother Nature at her freshest. And in some cases, it can mean free to an extent.
For me it is this notion of free that gets my butter beans cooking.
Growing organic veg, fruit and herbs from home, from just a few initial seeds, rejuvenating the earth they’re grown in and continuing to grow produce year upon year, that’s what makes me think organic is (very much up for discussion).
However, I will gladly confirm that an organic baked bean and a non-organic bean in my book are fundamentally the same.
It took me a decade to find my organic swing but that’s not to say it is organic all the way. Please don’t get me wrong – I will still happily drive to the supermarket and therefore filling the world with petrol emissions doesn’t play on my conscious whatsoever. Equally I can get into the car, visit said supermarket and then buy an organic onion. I am contradictory if nothing else (to an extent I argue).
Cost of being wholly organic vs doing what you can
I don’t argue for all my shopping to be a wholly organic experience. Cost still plays an issue in many of the organically produced produce and for this I am more than content to go against my organic found passion in order to purchase the cheaper item. Thus the baked bean and driving to supermarket to buy that onion among items packed with preservatives argument.
I want to do my part, but under the current economic crisis ever looming in the background like storm clouds brewing, organic is an ideal, but not a cult.
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