Many families who have thought about switching to organic groceries haven't done it because of the higher costs. At a time when stretching food dollars has become a national imperative, for many it just doesn't seem worth the higher price.

However, proponents of organic foods worry about the eventual health effects of consuming pesticides, fertilizers and other contaminants that are regularly used on crops in the US. That's one reason that organic farming is growing rapidly as consumers demand products that are not only free of contaminants but that also taste better and have higher concentrations of nutrients. Increasing interest in organic food has fueled the rising popularity of organic specialty stores and local farmers markets. It has also motivated larger grocery chains to adopt and stock more organic choices.

If you would like to feed your family more organics but can't afford to make a total commitment, Dr. Alan Greene has useful advice about how to get the most organic benefit for the money you spend.

In his recent book Raising Baby Green, Dr. Greene makes the argument that you can switch to only certain organic products that will make a huge difference in how much pollutants you and your family eat without breaking the bank. In the book, he offers a list of ten important foods, along with all the reasons why you should switch. His top ten strategic organic choices include: Milk, potatoes, peanut butter, baby food, ketchup (he calls it catsup), cotton (mostly oil consumed as additives to other foods), apples, beef, soy and corn. You can find details about each of these foods on his Web site Organic RX.

Comparing Local Costs

In a completely informal non-scientific survey of local area sources of organic foods, we picked five of the ten foods advocated by Dr. Greene and compared the prices of regular and organic versions. We selected similarly-sized packages and chose the least expensive brand of both regular and organic foods. On an ordinary Tuesday in Austin, these are the price points we found.

	Grocery Store Chain	Discount Grocery Store	Health Food Store	Community Cooperative
	Organic Regular	Organic Regular	Organic Regular	Organic Regular
Milk (1/2 gallon)	$2.99 $2.24	$3.38 $2.94	$2.99 $2.79	$3.99 $3.09
Potatoes (1 pound russet)	N/A $0.99	N/A $0.88	$0.80 $0.99	$0.99 N/A
Apples (1 pound any type)	$1.49 $1.39	N/A $0.99	$1.49 $0.99	$1.49 N/A
Peanut Butter (16 oz jar)	$2.49 $1.94	$3.88 $1.92	$3.99 $2.59	$4.59 $2.81
Ketchup (24 oz bottle)	$1.99 $0.99	$1.98 $0.87	$2.59 $1.99	$3.59 $2.29

Lowest posted price

General Observations

The most apparent benefit to shopping around was the discovery of what kinds of organic foods were available where. We compared prices, which are objective, but not perceived quality, which is subjective. As a general note, store brands of organic milk, peanut butter and ketchup were the best prices.

The listed prices at the coop only reflect what the person off the street would pay. Coop members get a variety of discounts off regular prices, according to their Web site. It's also worth noting that the organic milk at the coop was a well-known brand that is also available for approximately the same price at all the other stores. The lower prices for other vendors reflect the store brands.

Quality comparison in appearance of apples varied widely, with a large and appetizing selection at the coop, a smaller but still varied selection at the health food store, a few choices at the regular grocery store and nothing at the discount grocery store. Fresh organic potatoes were harder to find. The coop had several organic varieties and no regular potatoes, but the health food store offered only one organic choice -- packaged in five-pound bags. The others had no organic potatoes at all.

We did not include any of the area farmers markets even though they offer many selections in fresh, organic products in season. Dr. Greene's suggested list includes several packaged items and staples like potatoes and apples that most of us buy year-round, regardless of admonitions to eat locally and in season. Through recent shopping experiences at the farmers markets, we know that the items on our comparison list are not available year round and some of them not at all.

One other observation: Time is important even in connection with making sure your family has the most nutritious foods. Most of us don't have enough time to shop at one or two grocery outlets, much less at four. If you are thinking about making an organic switch yourself, spend an afternoon seeking out convenient grocery vendors in your neighborhood. Review yourself what each carries and make your own list of best prices and quality judgments.

Added Resources

You can find more information on organic food at www.eatwellguide.org or www.theorganicpages.com. Consumer Reports also published a story a few years ago that provides additional details on shopping organic.