Solo Mother

Can organic milk really assuage that mother’s guilt?

by christina on November 19th, 2006

When we moved back to the States, I made a few conscious decisions while running around in a panic of FOOD! CLOTHING! SHELTER! WORK! This newly single mother decided that the Earth was a place worth taking care of, and that she’d better start doing a better job of it.Unfortunately, green is out of reach for most single mom budgets. Environmentally sound cleaning products are usually more expensive than their toxic counterparts — if you buy the prepackaged variety. I would suggest to anyone cleaning on a budget the following household staples: vinegar and baking soda. Yes, vinegar and newspapers do clean your windows more sparkly than any Windex commercial could ever convince you. Boil up some water, throw in some vinegar and baking soda and voila! A solution to clear slow drains. A bowl of vinegar nuked in the microwave for a few seconds has stubborn food peeling off in quick fashion. A cup of vinegar in the rinse cycle makes your clothes soft and fresh — no, they won’t smell like white vinegar! And baking soda makes a fine scrubbing powder. Sunshine is your best whitener, so hang your whites out to dry in the daytime, and you’ll get the bonus of bright whites and fresh smelling laundry that no Bounce sheet can really capture.

What about organic foods? They break my bank but I do try to buy more organic than not. Buyer beware, though. Don’t believe it’s actually better for you and your kids just because there’s an organic label on it. There’s organic, and then there’s Organic. If you’re curious about the quality of the organics you’re buying, I suggest you begin here with the dairy products: that half gallon of Horizons Organic Whole Milk might not be any better than the conventional brand sitting next to it.

As ‘organic’ begins to mean ‘big business’, there are growing concerns that the popularity of organic foods is going to undermine the very principals upon which organic husbandry is founded. There are concerns that organic can’t equal corporate, and the demand for mass market organics will push independent organic farmers out of business. There are several things we can do to ensure that these farmers don’t get marginalized or destroyed by Big Business. Begin by knowing that an organic certification on the foods we consume should be accepted with the same skepticism that we (should) use to watch the evening news. Know that the certification process is so red-taped, and expensive, that alternative farmers are moving to other definitions to pronounce their foods whole, healthy, and nutritious, without being lumped into an organic label that is now becoming diluted. For instance, look for products labelled, “Certified Naturally Grown“, which is “a non-profit alternative certification program tailored for small-scale, direct-market organic farmers”:

When USDA’s Organic program was implemented in 2002, organic farms earning more than $5,000 per year were forced to make a choice that for many was difficult: either pay high certification fees and complete mounds of paperwork to become Certified Organic, or else give up using the word “organic” to describe their produce and/or livestock.

Believing that neither choice was very attractive, some farmers created Certified Naturally Grown to provide an alternative way to assure their customers that they observed strict organic growing practices. CNG strives to strengthen the organic movement by preserving high organic standards and removing financial barriers that tend to exclude smaller farms that sell locally and directly to their customers.

Another alternative is to join a local farm co-op. During the growing season, the farm drops off fresh produce, dairy, flowers, and more to a central location, for distribution to its members in the area. The initial buy in is steep: the co-op I’m looking to buy into is $600 up front for the season, but the cost works out to something like $20/week in delicious, well-grown produce, and the happy knowledge that someone is working in the soil and not starving himself to make ends meet. Support your local growers. Shop in farmer’s markets; personally, if I owned a car, I’d make the trip out to the Amish market in Maryland a few times a month to stock up on meats, poultry, dairy, and just oggle the extraordinary wall to wall confectionary shop (plus, there are the best donuts on earth at that place, hands down, even beating the little pastry shop on Nantucket with the automatic donut machine in the window).

And while we’re on the subject of meats, ask around. If you’ve got a deep freeze, you can get in on a portion of a grass-fed cow or another such organic, sustainable alternative to vegetanarianism or veganism. Get a bunch of people together to form a beef co-op and if you’re going to eat flesh, do it responsibly. Don’t buy cattle grazed on the razed scorched earth of what used to be prime Amazonia. (Are my politics showing? *tucks them back up her sleeve*).

Bottom line? Be an educated consumer. If you don’t let your kid sweet-talk you into buying every breakfast cereal and BAND-AID with a picture of the Power Rangers on it, why would you let a knee jerk reaction to the word ‘organic’ talk you into buying something that might be only just barely… organic?

Tags: activism, Amish, divorce, food, guilt, health, Horizon, organics, single-mom, single-mother

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POSTED IN: Spoil yourself, budget, finances, food, health, money, mother's guilt, political activism, take care of yourself