Tuesday Thoughts

Yesterday, the Today show did a segment on why Organic is Overrated . Thank you, pesticide powers that be! I have felt strongly about this for YEARS. While I was dating the vegetarian organic crazy dude, and when I lived on the Danforth, just steps from The Big Carrot (which sells all organic, all the time). I'm not opposed to the idea of farmers NOT spraying their crops, or injecting their vegetables with dyes. What I'm opposed to is that the food doesn't TASTE as good as the un-organic stuff. Is it just me? It's not! And when organic obsessers get all "It's worse for your body to eat an unorganic apple than to not eat an apple at all" I get sad, because how can it be better to not eat fruit than to eat fruit? There actually probably is some truth to this theory, because it's not a good idea to fill your body with chemicals (even Diet Coke, whatever) but I think this is the wrong message to be sending. And not just to little Connor McCreaddie, you know, the eight-year-old boy who weighs 196 pounds. No, not just to him and other kids who are eating too much junk food and not enough fruit and veggies, but to everyone. I mean, I have to tell myself every day to eat fruit. Eat Fruit, I say. So then to tell me that I should not eat fruit unless it's organic, it's just counterproductive, because it's not easy to find organic fruit by my work, which means I just don't eat fruit. And then if I don't eat fruit for a few days, it's like I've forgotten what fruit is altogether.

So the experts on the Today show said that you should try to eat locally grown when you can't eat organic, and that a lot of local farmers don't use pesticides, but they're just not allowed to call themselves organic farmers for a bunch of other reasons. So that's great, in the summer, but what am I supposed to eat all winter long? Because last time I checked there was NO locally grown fruit growing in the fields in Canada in the winter. There is, however, an Allan factory (you KNOW, they make Sour Patch Kids?) about half an hour outside the city. So I'm wondering, do Fuzzy Peach candies count as local fruit in the middle of March?