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What is Organic food? It is the same food only a lot costlier

Ten years back, I would stay away from shops that had a glass door and were air conditioned  – they always tend to be costlier than the other shops. In recent years, thanks primarily to a booming economy and subsequent increase in my salary (psst…don’t tell my wife) I don’t hesitate outside such shops anymore.

If you ask me, what these air-conditioned shops were ten years back, the organic food is today. It is so freaking costly.

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Every time I go for grocery shopping, I see counters labeled ‘Organic Foods’ and high-heeled non-moms, moms, and grand-moms loitering around the counter.

Thats when I asked my wife, “Rekha, what is organic food?”

“Organic food?”

“Yes, I see these organic food counters everywhere now.” I persisted.

“Ah…organic food. Thats just regular food but costlier.”

My mother who was standing nearby got curious. Just in case you thought ours is a family that is kind to each other, let me not disappoint you, you are right. My wife and my mother have a very healthy relationship – a relationship that ensures the fittest survives.

Usually my mother doesn’t question my wife’s strategy but when they are important decisions such as ‘is coconut chutney with idlies better than sambhar with idlies?’ ‘does adding garlic in fish curry make it tasty?’ etc my mother jumps in uninvited.

In this case also she did. She asked: “If it is normal food, why is it costlier?”

Not to be seen as the one that doesn’t know her vegetables, my wife responded confidently: “Aunty, these are vegetables which didn’t have poisonous fertilizers and pesticides sprayed on them. Such stuff can kill people you know?”

Then as an afterthought my wife added, “Not that fertilizers and pesticides are the only way to kill people.”

I waited holding my breath. I had to keep this discussion down. Didn’t want one of them to be hiring a hit-man for the other. Thankfully better sense prevailed and they moved on to other topics.

But for a change I realized that my wife was right. Organic food is regular food but costlier. In fact, organic food is so costly that if yours is a household where a single parent earns, you are doomed.

Just in case you don’t know, organic food is the food your grandparents once ate – everyday, without paying extra. This was when they were calling the shots (and not relegated to a corner of the house by their kids) and you were either a molecule somewhere, a sperm in somebody’s testicles or a kid in your mother’s arms.

Organic food for which we pay so much wasn’t always this costly. In fact, the Apple Eve ate and triggered the fashion industry was organic and was free. The poisoned apple the witch gave Snow White in the fairy tale ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ was also organic and free. Why then do we have to pay now for organic stuff?

Till about twenty years organic food was available in every store. There were no seperate counters. Our grand parents didn’t have to go to a fancy shop named “Farmacy” to buy Organic Food.

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There are a few things we can do to make sure we all don’t end up paying more for Organic food. Let us start with sharing this post on ours Facebook & Twitter and educate all farmers that we should ONLY be growing food without fertilizers and pesticides. Ohh wait, there is a problem. The farmers on Facebook aren’t real farmers….they are just Farmville players.

By Jamshed V Rajan

Jammy, as Jamshed V Rajan is affectionately called, is a wannabe stand up comedian. He has a funny take on most things but documents only some of them. If you are interested in chatting up with him, do drop him an email at jv.rajan@gmail.com or message him at +919650080255.

2 replies on “What is Organic food? It is the same food only a lot costlier”

Jammy once again a fantastic post….

I am a proud owner for an Organic Food Store by the name Organic Sansar. I am happy to say that my organic products are not that costly. They are well in reach of conman man.

We all can go back to our old food habits & once again be healthy…We just have to go “Back to Basics”

Refer: http://www.organicsansar.com

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