College students are trying their best to maintain a healthy lifestyle while juggling classes and a social life. To help fuel their busy lifestyle, they are reaching for that organic snack that makes life feel a little easier.
Organic food culture dominates the United States, and more specifically, younger individuals like college students. In the fall of 2018,Statista Global Consumer Survey found that Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 were the top consumers of organic foods.
Although there is a lot of variation in the cost of organic foods in relation to conventional foods, on average, organic items are about 7.5% more expensive, according to MarketWatch.
“I’m lucky enough to have an allowance from my family to purchase organic foods, otherwise I would not be able to afford it,” said Eralise Spokely, a sophomore at UO. The price difference between organic and non-organic foods, as Spokely puts it, is “insane and college is expensive as it is.”
The labels on our food heavily influence our relationship with it. The USDA Organic labelon organic food is attractive to consumers and informs us that it was not made with GMOs, therefore it is non-organic.
Other labels on products like “free-range,” “hormone-free” and “natural” also do not mean organic, according toThe National Pesticide Information Center. But it can still be appealing to students like UO sophomore Anna Sanchirico, who says she will “still buy cage-free eggs and organic chicken terms of animal products.”
Foods that travel a long way to get to us have a negative impact on the environment. For example, Harvest Public Mediaexplains that in the course of processing organic products like corn tortilla chips, there is a lengthy process – starting with harvest and through multiple stages of production and transportation in which there are various instances where the organic integrity of the product may be compromised.
“Organic food is among the faster-growing categories in supermarkets even though it adds to food bills and studies vary when it comes to perceived health benefits,” said Zlati Meyer of USA Today.
When it comes to budgeting for groceries, students often need to do what is best for their bank accounts. Students like Sanchirico say that non-organic foods serve a purpose. “I don’t think they’re necessarily bad, I just prefer to buy more local foods because it’s much better for the environment not to rely on food that travels incredibly far to get to you,” she said.
The benefits we see in organic food have made us fearful of GMO foods because we believe they hold lesser value and may be detrimental to our health. It is interesting to note CropLife International includes on their website that “most GMO crops are nutritionally equivalent to their non-GMO counterpart” — which is one of the goals of GMO products. Engineering crops to meet the needs of people and communities while avoiding disease and other natural interferences is essentially the point of GMOs in our lives.
If inorganic products are what we can afford, there is no shame because they still serve an essential purpose in our lives. “Non-organic products are cheaper, and I’m not against GMO products because most of the time they are safe due to regulations,” Spokely said.
Regulations under the USDA limit the number of pesticides organic foods may be produced with – therefore you can still be purchasing produce with pesticides when you shop organically. Shopping for organics or not, one extremely important thing to remember is that “pesticide residue can be reduced by routine food handling practices such as washing, peeling and cooking” as directed by theNational Pesticide Information Center.
When shopping, some helpful tips to remember from theEPA are to “eat a variety of foods, from a variety of sources… to give you a better mix of nutrients and reduce your likelihood of exposure to a single pesticide.”
In order to be healthy and financially stable, students have to make sacrifices to their grocery list. Not being able to purchase strictly organic foods is okay. Pressure to conform to organic food culture and renounce GMOs are not the one way ticket to a healthy, environmentally conscious life. Instead, eating fruits and vegetables, regardless of whether they are organic or not, is a great start.