Some people feel that organics are not worth the cost. My own husband fights me on this from time to time. Not always, just when the cost of living in this world gets overwhelming. I patiently explain to him, again, that shopping for anything takes being informed. You have to shop around. This is not as easy as it used to be when all our parents and grandparents had was the corner grocery store. We now have supermarts, megamarts, health food chain stores, and the ever confusing internet. On a positive note, many of the larger grocery store chains now carry generic organic private-label product lines. These are offered at a lower price than name brands. Many organic companies also offer their own coupons. All you have to do is go to their website and search for coupons. And if money is really tight(as it is for me), you can buy what you can organic, focusing on the food with the least pestiside residues. The Environmental Working Group has a Shopper's Guide to Pesticides to clip and put in your wallet or purse to take along to the store with you.

The cost of not buying organic is more far reaching than most people think. First the farmer sprays the pesticide, the run off falls in the dirt and gets washed away into our streams and rivers. The insects ingest the pesticide and die(many think this is the issue with the bees dying off as of late). Then the fish eat the pesticide laden bugs, or ingest the pesticide laden water that they live in. Then they die or pass on those pesticides to humans. So we are losing our insects like bees, butterflies, moths that pollinate our food supply. We do not see that cost in the government subsidized, pesticide laden conventional food. Yes, that is right, government subsidized.

Scientists have found that organic farming can help the environment not just by the mere lack of pesticides, but the microbe-enriched soil actually removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas that is the most prevalent in our atmosphere.

Buying locally is a great idea also, but only if you can find it organic. Just because something is being displayed in the store with a "Grown Locally" sign, it doesn't mean it wasn't doused with pesticides. To find a local organic farm near you, you can log onto www.localharvest.org. They also talk about CSA's, or Community Supported Agriculture there as well. For more information, you can also look under my Healthy Living section to view a video about CSA's.

According to What's On My Food (www.whatsonmyfood.org), most of us are born with persistent pesticides and other chemicals already in our bodies, passed from mother to child during fetal development. The human health impacts linked to pesticide exposure range from birth defects and childhood brain cancer in the very young, to Parkinsons’ Disease in the elderly. In between are a variety of other cancers, developmental and neurological disorders, reproductive and hormonal system disruptions, and more.

• Autism
• Breast Cancer
• Children’s diseases
• Endosulfan – Health effects
• Gestational diabetes
• Parkinson’s Disease