Working to eat

Dunnes always beat Tesco for meat . Tesco meat is simply dreadful in Ireland , its dreadful in the UK too but meat is dreadful in all supermarkets in the UK .

Note that Tesco have 2 if not 3 own brand ranges , I think Dunnes have a cheap and dear own brand range as well but I normally stay out of Dunnes food shops and cannot comment on anything in there bar the FABULOUS Dunnes Stores Salads , not cheap but FABULOUS anyway.

Blue Stripe Tesco stuff is yellowpack for the millenium, bar the blue stripe jaffa cakes/pastas/spaghettis which I have found edible the blue stripe stuff is utterly vile in my experience

Metallic Silverand Gray is the higher quality own brand packaging . Some of that is range is very nice .....like their pizzas for example...... but it can be pricey. I keep an eye out for the 2 for the price of 1 specials in that Range .

I wasn't recommending organic. I was just highlighting how much I spend based on an "organic" shopping list. to put things into context.

Fair enough - I was just referring to a few different references to organic produce earlier in the thread.

Ditto- to be pedantic about it I wasnt actually recommending organic either- just that in our case the farmer we buy from IS an organic farmer. And the reason I mentioned the local organic farmers market was that I believe the veg are supposed to be very good value there. Not just for organic veg, but veg in general. However, having said that, I do consciously try to buy organic for the sake of Vanilla Jnr so as not to expose her to toxins or pesticides etc.Mr V and I are presumably lost causes, and just in case we're not, we add daily top ups of caffeine, sugar msg etc etc!

The reason I find it better to get organic fruit and veg delivered is because I feel like not only am I doing something better for myself but also because I've paid more than I would have paid to buy the same (non-organic) vegetables in the supermarket I make damn sure to use every bit of them - which is saving me money in the long run (because of not buying veg intending to be good then being lazy and buying convenience foods in Spar/Centra and ending up throwing out veg in the end) as well as forcing me to eat fresh food, something I try to do anyway but sometimes fail miserably at. I completely agree that one of the most frustrating things about organic stuff in supermarkets is the amount of plastic packaging.

Quality is of course subjective but as I am training myself to eat more fruit and veg I am really noticing the taste of foods more and so many of the supermarket veg in particular just tastes bland and kind of watery. My brother grew courgettes last year and they were so much nicer than the shop bought variety. The original poster could consider growing some veg at home as well to cut down on costs of things like courgettes which tend to be expensive to buy but are actually incredibly easy to grow, and even cheaper to do if you have a garden and don't need to buy pots etc. Or do it the even cheaper way like me and convince your younger siblings that gardening would be a really great hobby!

Yes, we have a large greenhouse and grow our own (organic) veg. Very useful for expensive items like courgettes and peppers.

We also grow strawberries and raspberries, which can be ridiculously expensive especially out of season. We just pop half of them into the freezer and use them all round the year. Yummy.

Thanks for the follow up comments/clarifications.

Janet said:

The reason I find it better to get organic fruit and veg delivered is because I feel like not only am I doing something better for myself ...

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As far as I know there is no evidence to support the claim that organic produce is more nutritious, beneficial (to the consumer) or safer than regular produce.

... but also because I've paid more than I would have paid to buy the same (non-organic) vegetables in the supermarket I make damn sure to use every bit of them - which is saving me money in the long run (because of not buying veg intending to be good then being lazy and buying convenience foods in Spar/Centra and ending up throwing out veg in the end) as well as forcing me to eat fresh food ...

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Seems like odd logic to me but each to his/her own.

Clubman, this is only starting to scratch the surface of some of the odd logic I use to get me through the day! But I like to share just in case there are any similarly odd people out there

Must take the time to look into the issue of whether organic is better for me or not - for the moment I'm going with the gut feeling that the less chemical residue I put into my body the better. But please don't pick me up on this one, I'm totally unprepared to defend myself, not to mention my continued use of things like Domestos to clean the toilet with, Flash for the floors etc. which conflicts entirely with my desire to rid my life of unwanted chemicals!

Janet said:

for the moment I'm going with the gut feeling that the less chemical residue I put into my body the better.

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Last time I read about this issue I remember the issue of microbial (e.g. E.Coli) contamination of organic produce higher than that of regular produce being flagged. The point was made that far from being better for the consumer some organic produce could, in fact, be worse. I must re-read up on this issue again when I get a chance. Rational skepticism is useful in circumstances such as these.

I'd rather eat cowsh1t than some of the stuff that gets sprayed on.

[broken link removed] Don't forget that there are strict controls on the levels of pesticide/chemical residues that are allowed in regular produce and below these the health effects are negligible especially when produce is peeled etc.

There is lots of reading material about this issue out on the web and elsewhere. that might be of interest and which takes a skeptical view of the claim that organic produce is better (in terms of nutrition/contamination) than regular produce. At the very least it's worth keeping an open mind on the claims of the various vested interest groups in this sort of context, studying the evidence and coming to rational and fact based conclusions/decisions.

However for the other side of the argument, see this ClubMan: the devil can cite scripture for his purpose! There are arguments, seemingly scientifically based for both sides. I checked out the articles you linked, but one is fairly outdated now- its 7 years old: this is the one which seems shocked that organic farmers use animal waste to fertilize plants- shock, horror- as far as I know this is hardly news- and certainly isnt confined to organic food, and the most the other says is that organic food is not necessarily more nutricious than conventional- while mentioning some benefits to organic food, nonetheless.

I trust 2 billion years of nature over 50year old chemical companies.

On balance I think a couple of e-coli incidents is vastly more desirable than entire populations pumping themselves with chemicals, reducing sperm count, increasing cancers and who knwos what else.

We're just animals who have evolved to eat ONLY what nature has produced. Anything else hurts us.