Eating organic on modest means

I'm always a little wary when someone gives me tips on how to do this or that on what they are calling "modest means." Depending on who you are and where you come from, the term can mean very different things.

I just found a little piece on WikiHow [2] that lays out some simple tips for eating organically on modest means. I will note that they are specifying modest means as at least $1,000/month after taxes. In downtown Toronto, that does comprise modest means.

The tips? Well, they make sense to me, and only one of them could be confused with the SUV to Costco/Sam's Club way of thinking (one of the tips is to buy organic products in bulk to lower the costs -- 48 rolls of recycled toilet paper, anyone?)

• Buy food items in their raw, unprocessed form
• Cook from scratch
• Buy in bulk (you know, like organic flour and such)
• Buy in season
• Shop locally
• Befriend a farmer or gardener 
• Choose the foods that should only ever be eaten organically (think strawberries)
• Grow your own

There are some innovative solutions out there to support folks who want to buy local and eat healthier. I wrote a post [3] a while back about a program [4] that matches dollar for dollar spent at farmers' markets by folks who are using the food stamp program.

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