"If you think organic is expensive, have you priced cancer lately?"

The quote, that serves as the title to this blog post, is found at the end of the article linked below:

http://localnourishment.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/csa-yeah-ive-heard-of-em-arent-they-expensive/

Local Nourishment has a good article about the affordability of CSA's. Although costs will vary by region, she makes some good points. I will tell you, that in my area, the cost of CSA's (Community Shared Agriculture) are significantly less than what she is paying. Generally speaking though, a CSA option is going to be less than if you bought at a Farmer's Market, as well as being an excellent solution to not having land to garden extensively yourself.

For my own family, I have gone the "Square Foot Gardening" route to feed us weekly, through the summer, and relied on local u-pick farms (although not always organic) as the most cost-effective way to have a good supply of fresh produce. I was going to seriously consider an organic CSA this summer - but my schedule is not going to allow for the weekly pick ups.

I think that the reason that the quote caught my eye is two-fold: one - my mom is currently undergoing treatment for cancer, and the expense is staggering...... 10's of 1000's of dollars monthly! She has "good insurance", so she pays very little, but I am just AMAZED at the COST. Secondly: since we have transitoned to real, whole foods - and completley been liberated from the processed/convenience/packaged stuff (i.e. I rarely go to the "grocery store" anymore), I can say unequivacably, that our family is one of the healthiest I know! We are RARELY sick. This is not an understatement. We simply do not "catch the crud" that goes around - and *if* we do, it's a VERY mild case, that doesn't require a doctor visit. It has been WELL over a year since ANYONE in my family has seen the doctor for a sick visit of any kind. It has been WELL over a year since anyone in my family has had to take an antibiotic of any kind.

My point? Eating real, healthy, whole foods and ditching fast food, processed food, convenience foods, and regular restaurant foods has made a significant difference in the cost of our "health care". Not only does completely cooking from scratch free up $$ to be spent on high quality whole foods, but it also keeps us healthy, so we are not spending money on doctor visits, over the counter meds, and prescriptions. We don't even eat exclusively "organic" - we just eat real food, prepared at home into wholesome, nourshing meals.

Joel Salatin's quote bears repeating: "If you think organic is expensive, have you priced cancer lately?"

*Just a note: I haven't yet figured out how to insert a "link" into my blog posts..... which means you will have to copy and paste the above address into the address bar of your browser to reach the web page.

Shauna