Tonya Kay is an actress, TV personality, professional dancer and danger artist living in Los Angeles. A vegetarian of 28 years, vegan for 18 of those and raw vegan for the last 11, Tonya Kay pioneers the green health movement with appearances, publications and green media (available at 
| Organic Produce—Price vs. Value, Part 3: Supply, Demand and Government Subsidies |
| Tuesday, 11 September 2012 00:00 | Written by Tonya Kay | Blog Entry |
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Still, it troubles me that this cost difference exists. I want my organic produce and I want it to be affordable! We’ve seen how farming location and production costs affect price, but they are not the only things factored into our fruit's price per pound. There’s also basic economics at play. Supply and Demand When I stayed on the island of the Commonwealth of Dominica, bananas, pawpaw, soursop and cacao grew so abundantly that when I asked how much for two bananas at the village market, the woman chuckled, waived her hand and rolled her eyes. She could not imagine charging me at all for something I could walk 10 steps and pick off the tree myself. We have an inverse situation in the US. You want an organic strawberry? Well, it's going to cost you. Organic produce costs more because wise businesspeople know there is limited supply and growing demand. Government Subsidies In the aftermath of World War II, when governments needed to assure that severe food shortages never happened again, the chemical technologies of the 1950s seemed a blessing. To this day, the government subsidizes the use of chemicals in farming, while organic farms are just beginning to see incentives, many only at the state level. Once you include the income taxes you've already paid toward agrochemical subsidies, conventional produce doesn't seem quite as affordable. One Dollar, One Vote It is also important to contact your government representatives to kindly inform them of your interest in increasing incentives for organic farmers. Elected officials all have staff members who count your letters, calls and emails (yes, those tallies do get noticed!). So stay educated and involved, especially in state and local politics. This is where the changes that affect your locality are put in place the fastest. And while you are thinking action, please take some now by reading and signing this petition supporting legislation that encourages organic farming. Stay tuned for Part 4. Read Part 1: Organic Produce—Price vs. Value: Location, Location, Location See also: [Sign up to be notified each time Tonya publishes a new Clean and Green Everyday blog entry on EcoHearth. See a complete list of writing by Tonya Kay on EcoHearth.com or visit her Clean and Green Everyday blog. – Ed.] Help the Earth, Spread the Word: Share this article with family and friends by clicking on the "Email This" or "Share This" links below right. Then see TODAY'S TOP STORIES. Copyright EcoHearth. All rights reserved. Reprint Policy Comments
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Written by Tonya Kay , December 08, 2009
Right on! And I you have company in the "simple raw recipes" department. The longer you are raw and the higher and higher raw percentage you eat, you might just find that laziness is not the only reason to eat a simple raw diet. They are also easier to sustain because of their ease of preparation. But most importantly, they tend to combine better and allow the body to respond with a natural "I'm not hungry" satiation earlier. When you eat one food at a time, or very simple foods, the body gives you signals to stop eating when nurishment has been reached. But if you keep salting this, spicing that, mixing this and that up, you really are overriding your taste buds wisdom - they are confused because you keep tricking them!
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Ever eaten figs off the tree, fresh? They are WONDERFUL for about five or six figs. Then the inside of my mouth starts to get that prickle feeling and before fig 8 I know I am full because they literally taste different than when I started. Now imagine if I mixed them with balsamic vinegar and a little salt and cinnamon - sure, they'd taste good, but I wouldn't know when I was full because they would taste the same every bite!
Written by kathy , December 07, 2009
Kathryn,
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Your "rice of the stars" made me laugh. My family is like that too, they always laugh about how my mother and I "just love to spend money on pretty packaging" but they are totally clueless about how the quality of your food relates to the quality of your health. I see them spend way more on headache pills and doctor visits than I do on "designer food". Anyway keep on keepin' on and good luck! I can't imagine having to deal with that so often as I live in New York, it's enough to take once in a while during holidays!
Written by KathrynJeanette Cormier , December 07, 2009
Tonya, I am trying! I am looking at your videos while re-reading this last article you wrote. That organic vegetable section in the Whole Foods in Los Angles, is one of the biggest selections I ever saw, even at Whole Foods in Houston, Metairie, New Orleans or Baton Rouge. When I mentioned about the raw foods diet I just read about in Vogue, in ballet class, the ballet teacher thought I was talking about sushi. Then she could not understand why I would want to follow such a diet, because the reason she said she moved to South Louisiana was because of the food, and the partying. But just like you are saying, there is a Fresh Market that opened a little less than a year ago, about a block from my house. So it is changing, it is just right now, it is a lot of effort also to get organic food out here. The other day, I bought a small bag of organic rice for a few ounces from California that costs $6.00, with great reluctance from my b/f, who paid for it. But a 10 pound bag of regular rice grown over here is under $5.00, I think. Still hearing about my "designer rice" or "rice of the stars." I have heard all my life, I belong in California.
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Anyway, about another video on your site, about making sure all your favorites are in your house. Well, yesterday, I went to all the supermarkets, bought bags and bags of spinach and mixed greens (Winn Dixie kept giving me coupons, each coupon better price than the previous, and it was already, by one bag of mixed greens, get another free-no preservatives, all natural. I bought organic carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, having no clue how I was going to prepare all this. Today, when that is all I had to eat in my apt, I got in the kitchen and figured it out. The raw vegan recipes just do not turn out the way the recipe says, so I am trying to do the most simplest things with raw foods.
Written by Tonya Kay , December 02, 2009
Hey, KJ! Louisiana needs your energy. I disagree that "no one" will buy organic produce out there - you are one! And that's one. And there are surely others who are one, wondering where the organics are. Sometimes small or remote groups will form a co-op and source directly from a farmer. Like you are doing. Maybe you are the leader for your town's future buying cooperative?!
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I admire that you are staying true to your ideals, even amongst misunderstandings and contradictory lifestyles. Keep yourself true and I know that you won't be breaking your "diet" but continually discovering ways, instead, that it can work. No matter where you are.
Written by KathrynJeanette Cormier , December 02, 2009
I live in South Louisiana, not by choice, but Louisiana farmers refuse organic farming because Louisiana people will not buy it. I am seeing changes, though but will not happen overnight. Fresh Market which is thriving in Lafayette today, would not have stood a chance over here even 10 years ago. Louisiana is well known for its rice, but there are absolutely no local organic rice farmers. I found a Louisiana Rice farming website, and the response I got was the last time Organic rice was produce in Louisiana was in 2008. I thought I could find organic bar b que sauce, not the Kraft version, but the kind with the celery, onions and bell peppers in the Bar B Que sauce, made using the sweet leaf sweeteners, and organic tomatoe paste, and organic vegetables-don't exist over here.
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People over here love to drink alcholic beverages, there are about three festivals in Acadiana area every week, and people over here are not going to give up their beer drinking money to afford organic foods. And no one over here knows anything about the raw vegan diet, those that I do talk about it too, thinks it is an insane, non realistic diet. Like I go to this orchard to get foods to help me with this raw vegan diet, and some hunter who was there thought I was getting the pecans to make fudge with it. I could not believe that-I go to this orchard to try to stay on a diet, not break it. |
I personally don't mind paying more for higher-quality products—especially when they involve my food or other things that directly affect my quality of life. Production standards of organic farming may raise the price of organic produce, but they also increase its nutritional quality, flavor profile, color intensity and, as any raw foodist will tell you, life force. For this reason, it is my humble opinion that an extra 10 cents per pound is well worth the investment. 
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I love my "Rice of the Stars!" The difference in how I feel when I eat "normal" rice as compared to my "designer rice" is unbelievable. I do not know why, but there is a difference. I purchased the California grown organic rice from Drug Emporium, the Fresh Market does not even have organic rice, but they do have plantation rice and Jasmine rice, both of which I found to be the next best thing when I cannot get the organic rice. South Louisiana is real proud of its food, that is what attracts tourists from all over. My b/f's family used to be rice farmers. When I am in the store, talking about a raw vegan diet (except that I love seafood!!!) people over here never fail to let me know that is an insult. TONYA; I am seeing all these recipes on the Internet, such as the sunburger. The main ingredients are mushrooms and cashews. When I tried it, that burger I made tasted horrible!! I read where crunching up almonds and just adding water makes ice cream-well it did not work out that way for me, it was just almonds floating in some water. So I am trying with simple things, then go from there. My grandparents had a gigantic fig tree. Actually during fig season was just the time I read about this raw foods diet in Vogue, about in 2003. I took some figs and nuts and put them in food processor, and said it don;t taste bad at all. My mother and aunts-everyone said, "Oh it sounds delicous" sarcastically joking. They pick the figs, or pick black berries, and then cook them with loads of sugar. (cause its the only way to preserve them).
People in my family do not understand this extra effort because there were hardly ever any illnesses. Lots of people commented to me that my family hardly has any health problems, which I never realized that was such a rarity. My friends would come over, and totally surprised we never had things like aspirin, cold and flu medicine, things like that stored in our house. I was 41 years old in 2006, and the first time I ever took pain medication and antibiotics was when the oral surgeon had to remove my wisdom teeth. I told him that was the first time I ever had to take such medication, so he had to tell me the basic most common knowledge. Well, I did not take the antibiotics the right way, then he understood what I was talking about. As far as that stuff for pain, he gave me 40 count, I took about 18 of them. I did not like them, because I noticed a weakening of my muscles. I still have the rest of them somewhere in this apt. I agree that whatever they are putting in conventional food is keeping hospitals and drug companies in business. It is important to me that I am able to stay physically active for however long I live. So giving up other luxuries is well worth the cost of the organic foods, when they are available to me.