Organic Goodness

There are three practices that I believe all home cooks should employ in order to maintain health and happiness, as well as improve the output of their culinary explorations.  These three practices are buying organic food, buying locally-produced food, and buying and/or foraging for wild edibles.  Today I will be focusing on buying organic food. 

Now, I want to be clear that I do not think that home cooks should buy only organic items.  If your budget is limitless, then go ahead and skip over the conventional food section of the grocery store.  However, for everyone else, I do believe that you should go organic for a few of the usual suspects on your grocery lists.  Take a look at the following list of 47 fruits and vegetables:

http://www.foodnews.org/fulllist.php

You will notice that there are many fruits and vegetables that you eat on a daily basis that contain, on average, relatively high levels of pesticide residue.  What items should you buy organic versions of on this list?  Well, I’m not a scientist, but I think anything with a score of 36 or above should be purchased from the organic section of your supermarket.  Items with scores below 36 seem to be heartier, more thick-skinned fruits and vegetables.  However, avoiding the consumption of pesticides is not the only reason to buy organic food items.

According to an article from Cooking Light written by Maureen Callahan¹, recent studies conducted by The Organic Center have shown that, on average, organic foods offer a 25% higher nutrient level than their conventional counterparts.  Interestingly enough, the dearth of pesticides used in the production of organic produce is responsible for the increased nutrient levels.  Many of the nutrients found in fruits and vegetables that are of great benefit to humans act as natural pesticides, such as various vitamins and antioxidants.  When fruits and vegetables are not covered in pesticides, they must have higher levels of natural pesticides in order to ward off critters with foul intentions.  Therefore, they must produce increased levels of vitamins and antioxidants.  By the way, I am not a reader of Cooking Light, but this article was highlighted on CNN Health, which certainly, in my mind, makes it a more credible source.

While I am sure you have all read about the health benefits associated with eating organic foods, you may not be aware of the fact that organic food prices have been softening as of late.  I decided to do a little economic analysis of organic food prices in order to show how prices have changed in our (the consumer’s) favor since 2001.  In my case study, I chose to look at the wholesale prices of carrots in Boston from 2001 – 2008.

The chart above shows how wholesale prices of carrots sold in Boston have changed from 2001 to 2008.  To accurately compare the prices of organic and conventional carrots, I have decided to employ two analytical techniques.  First, I converted carrot prices, which I downloaded from the USDA, from nominal dollars to real dollars.  More specifically, I converted the prices into 1995 dollars by stripping the prices of price effects (inflation, etc.) post-1995 using the Consumer Price Index, which I downloaded from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  After converting the prices into real dollars, I then indexed the prices to 1 starting in 2001.  As you can see, the price of organic carrots in Boston has not only decreased since 2001, but it has actually decreased more than the price of conventional carrots in Boston.  While this does not mean that organic carrots are cheaper than conventional carrots, it does indicate that the increased demand for organic produce over this period has had a positive effect (for consumers) on the price of organic carrots.  This is a trend that is likely to continue as the organic food industry grows. 

This next chart displays the price premium that wholesale purchasers pay for organic carrots relative to conventional carrots in Boston.  For example, in 2001, the price of organic carrots was approximately 162% more than conventional carrots, meaning that if conventional carrots cost $10, organic carrots would cost $26.20.  While this chart indicates that the price gap between conventional and organic carrots is rather high, it does show that the price premium has a downward trend.  I have included a trend line, along with the equation of the trend line.  The trend line has a slope of -0.0209, which means that year over year, the price premium drops by about 2.1%.  This does not mean that organic carrots will be free any time soon, but it does show that as more and more people demand organic goods, the price difference between organic and conventional goods shrinks.  Therefore, organic foods are not only more beneficial due to their high nutrient levels and lack of pesticide residue, but they are also becoming cheaper and cheaper each year relative to conventional goods.

It is important to note that while I have only conducted my analyses on carrot prices in Boston, I do have faith that the information I have provided for carrots will be the same for other organic produce.  Obviously, not all organic goods will be identical, but given that these changes are, in large part, the product of the growth of the organic food market as a whole, these same patterns are likely to be witnessed with most other organic food items.

Long story short, get out there and buy some organic goods.  Your mind, body, soul, and wallet, relatively speaking, will thank you!

1          Callahan, Maureen, “How to Buy the Best Organic Foods,” Cooking Light, June 16, 2009.