Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Buying Organic

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book has been SO helpful in deciding which foods are worth buying organic and which ones you can safely buy conventional. I was planning on switching to all or mostly organic, but my budget just woulnd't have allowed that, so I picked up this book at the library to help me decide what to buy. For example, I'm going to keep buying regular skim milk because there were nearly no presticide residues found in it, but because pesticides hold in fats, there were a lot found in whole milk, cheese, and butter, because of the fat, so I plan to buy those organic. It also made me realize hormones in milk and meat were probably not as much of a problem as organic advocates would have you believe. I plan to buy organic fruits and veggies, and I'm still deciding on meats. These authors don't recommend all organic, but they don't seem to be in the pocket of the big farms OR the organic growers. They form their own conclusions and opinions. Great and helpful book.

Before I started reading this book, I wondered whether to start on organic foods or not (as I don't like spending money). After reading it I now have a plan of transforming step by step.
I understand why the previous review says it's confusing-it gives so many facts from all aspects and it contains lots of scientific & technical details that even a biology PhD student like me doesn't feel comfortable with.
But this is exactly what makes it believable. I've read a few thin books advocating organic foods that cite only evidence supporting their idea. I'm sick of them-superficial works backed by pure financial interests. This book, on the contrary, presents (to the best of their capabilities) impartial data. This is honesty.
The book is more than "best bets" charts that are concluded from Total Diet study. I don't any more take for granted things I eat.
Being health conscious, I won't stop at this book alone and will certainly continue to monitor future trends.
Overall, I feel this book is well worth the read.

In the attempts of the authors to provide an unbiased opinion of Organic foods, they created a book that seems to contradict itself. The beginning starts good as it describes the Organic movement and helps to decipher Organic labels. As you get further into the book, especially the chapter on dairy and milk you begin to get confused. The book atempts to explain the different pesticides, hormones and residues in milk but leaves you more confused about what is acceptable and what is unpreventable. The book completely lost me when it compared food items and tried to convince me that boxed Mac and Cheese with Yellow #5, Yellow #6 and tripolyphosphate was just as healthy as the organic version that did not contain anything artifically engineered. You can decide for yourself but personally I felt this book was written by authors who felt the need to buy Organic foods was foolish and not worth it.

Some of the books about organic foods out there stress the (sometimes unconvincing) benefits of purchasing organic food and dismiss evidence which doesn't back up their claims. I feel that this book gives a more balanced overview. While some sections are more in depth than the average reader would want, I think that it gives a wealth of information and leaves it to the consumer to decide what is most important to them when buying organic and how to choose products which compliment their views.

When looking through most of the books about organics here on Amazon, I began to notice just how much information this little book has. It's nearly 400 pages covering the organic industry, pesticides, what to look for and what to avoid, and it covers all of these subjects with a good amount of detail. The other books about organics tend to be smaller, and while they are also good, I liked Buying Organic due to the large amount of information it has. Overall I would highly recommend it!

Contrary to what the religious wing of the organics movement might want, this book is a balanced, reasoned approach to organics. I checked into author Perry's background (what I could find) and there is no connection to the mega food industry. She's a small farmer with a CSA, organic of course.

The book surveys the broad realm of organic products and offers positive, helpful advice -- what's good to buy, what makes no sense, etc. And book does a great job of covering the history and philosophy of organic agriculture.

Two thumbs up, or three if you're one of those people mutated by all the pesticides floating around.

I bought this book because of what it promised to tell me on the cover, "Which organic foods are worth the cost, and which conventional foods you can buy with confidence."

The first one hundred pages of the book goes through the arguments between the "conventional methods" of farming and the "organic methods". Why this is done, I don't know. Why would I buy a book on which organic foods to buy, if I wasn't already convinced of the benefits of buying organic?

When it finally gets to "Navigating The Aisles", it still doesn't tell me which products are best to buy organic and which are not. It continues to lecture and give history lessons on the different ways that different kinds of foods are processed. It gives dates, numbers, statistics, but nothing that resembles "Buy this.... and not this...." which is what it promised to do on the cover.

I buy organic all the time and pay the extra cost and drive the extra mile to do it. I was hoping this book would help me make better decision, but it didn't do anything but bore me with lectures, numbers, and history lessons.

Trust me, don't waste your time or money with this one.

This book is a great debate on the merits of organic food. Should I go organic or not? Why? Which products? Is packaged food truly organic? Pros and cons to both sides of the issue that will give you info to make your decision more informed. Also includes many companies that you can seek for your organic food. Well done.

I believe that these authors received a big kickback from large factory farms and big business.