or•gan•ic (awr-gan-ik)

So lately I’ve been hearing/reading a lot about organic food. It’s an interesting topic really and perhaps even somewhat controversial depending on who you’re talking to. I used to think the organic trend was just a clever marketing scheme to get yuppie people to buy cheap produce at an outrageous price. But now I’m not so sure.

Organic produce is a staple in almost any grocery store. And while some things organic are still just an excuse to sell you something at an upgraded cost (who after all really needs organic Oreos?), there may be something to the organic craze. Take milk for example. Interesting that even though the only things listed on your regular milk carton are pasteurized milk and added vitamin D there are apparently any number of hormones and antibiotics in the feed that were given to the cows that made the milk that never make an appearance on the list. Hormones and antibiotics that may or may not be leading to early “maturing” of young girls and health concerns for the rest of us as we age.

Anyway, it was enough to get me thinking that maybe organic milk (produced by cows that only get organic feed – sans hormones and antibiotics) might be worth it. I’ve been drinking a lot more milk of late and since it’s not just me who’s taking a drink when I sit down with a glass I thought I’d give it a try. So this week I bought organic milk (pushing aside all fears that milk is in fact considered the gateway to organic food). Yes it was more expensive (1/2 a gallon for about $0.50 more than a gallon of regular milk) but I felt like I had a good reason. At least I knew why I was buying organic, and it wasn’t so that I would look cool at the register next to the hippies and soccer moms at Trader Joe’s (that was just an added bonus). I have yet to decide if it’s something I’ll keep doing in the future. In any case organic milk tastes exactly the same as regular milk so the only thing left to consider is will the extra $3.69 a week to keep weird hormones and antibiotics out of my body really make a difference? Maybe…