Orfo-nomics: Making a head and tail of the cost markup

The other day a trip to a street corner organic store yielded quite a few brow raising revelations. A 10 minute chat with the store owner reeked of hypocritical treatment being doled out to those in the business of making the cleanest and safest of food. An organic food producer requires to go for extensive documentation and certifications, while a street hawker thrives and sells a pesticides laden pumpkin without an iota of administrative hassles, forget remorse. Yes, the burden of proof, in its entriety, lies on those who strive for a better world and a healthier you. That really does create quite a few entry barriers and barriers in your path of treading the organic lane.

This being one, what other things drive the cost, or rather makes it prohibitive for an individual to re engineer his food basket? Density is one reason. You need far more land to generate the same amount of organic product as compared to "non" organic. More land costs more. Takes more time to work. Labor costs are higher. And the "loss" of product to insect and disease is far greater.

Still, why does organic produce tilts the scales when you weigh it against the extra moolah you dish out? Interestingly, a four-year, $25 million European Union study raised fruits, vegetables and cows on adjacent organic and nonorganic sites at a 725-acre farm near Newcastle University in England. Researchers found organic produce contained upto 40 percent more anti oxidants, besides containing higher levels of iron, copper and zinc. As for the organic milk, it contained up to 90 percent more antioxidants. Just for the record, oxidative stress contributes to the development of a wide range of diseases including the deadly Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and most notably cardio vascular diseases.

So if growing organic foods is healthier for the farmer, the shipper, the cattle and of course the consumer, not to forget it doling a benign treatment to our soil, water and air, then don't you feel the extra cost of organic foods is a wise long-term investment? Economies of scale is the only solution I see, breaking the barriers to you going on the organic super highway. Once again, at the cost of sticking my neck out, the parity leading to a transformation from an 'initiative' to an 'imperative' shall come sooner than you think, 5 years and your 90% of the food basket shall be organic! Amen.

Wake up Call !!!

Guys!! First things first – thanks a lot for inviting me to post on this blog. Culinary Engineers – Who are we? Does this question arise in everyone’s mind? Not sure – but I do feel an introduction of us is a must. You guys might be one amongst us tomorrow and maybe you guys are one amongst us even today but maybe you have not realized. We are a set of friends/acquaintances/strangers with a common thought process. You can call us food freaks, gourmet, gourmand, foodie or anything you want. Culinary engineers are concerned about the environment, health and post data on good food and the advantages of good food. Sounds simple?

What the hell is wrong with the food I am eating right now; Oops – Apologies Mate, there is nothing wrong. Just that you might fall sick one fine day and the doctor might not be able to detect why you have been infected with such a fatal disease even if you don’t taste alcohol/tobacco/any drug for that matter. Yes, conventional food is not harmful to our systems but remember it neither harmless!!! The way these foods are grown, there is a flaw in that. Look at the farmer spraying the pesticides on the food!! Are these pesticides edible?? Can we eat them? Please read the label in each pesticide, it shows that we need to stay from that as it might be poisonous!!! Oops – Once more J. Why is our friend who is spraying pesticides on the food which we gonna eat having masks?? Why? Did any of us wonder why? At least I dint till sometime, researchers say that pesticides once dry might not be harmful! Listen to this; they say it might not be harmful. Stress the word there “MIGHT”. So, there is a possibility that it might get harmful. Yes! In some cases and it doesn’t take long for that some to become most!! Don’t u think I make sense? I feel insecticides and pesticides are certainly harmful!! Certainly! So, lets not mess with it! It is not harmful to you and me but it is harmful even to the animals, flowers, insects, in short all living beings!! How? Is this your question? You may think, how the food I eat gonna affect them? Yes! It would, I shall tell you how? Because of the environment hazards these crops might create. The world might get extinct, what is green house effect? Does this play a role in that? I guess, we need to wait till the next post to get these answers :).