I am fourth year student at University of Maryland in College Park who is working my way through school.  I used to work two jobs making around $8-9 hour usually averaging around 35 hours a week on top of attending school full-time.  My friends never understood why I wasn’t swimming in cash, and the reason was because almost all of the money I earned contributed to paying my rent.  After I paid my rent, some months I only had $100 or less of money to myself.  That was $100 to pay for food, transportation and socializing.  Needless to say, I understand the limitations of buying food on a small budget.

As a kid I remember my mom immediately taking out the produce after we carried in our Giant grocery bags and washing all of the fruits and veggies.  This supposedly made the food safe to eat, because you were washing away all the pesticides.  Later I learned these pesticides sink into the skins of your fruits and veggies, so washing doesn’t completely help.  The chemicals in the pesticides also create potentially harmful situations for farmers whom are breathing in an assortment of chemicals while spraying the harvest.

I could continue on and on about what I learned about the food industry.  So I will cut to the chase: the simplest way to eat healthy while helping the environment is by eating 100% local, organic produce.  Everyone has a different definition of what they consider local, but what I consider local is food that is produced within a 100 mile radius and produce that is seasonal.  For example, you will be finding more squash in the cooler months and more berries in the warmer months.  Be wary, not everything that is local is organic and not everything that is organic is local.  You have to do your research and ask questions about your local natural food stores and farmers’ stands.  Sometimes at natural food stores you may be unintentionally fooled to believe that you are getting the best deal by getting local produce, when it most likely isn’t organic.

One of the most valuable lessons of having little money is the importance of prioritizing.  Of course, ideally we would like to buy our food 100% natural, organic and local.  But we all know that organic and natural grocery stores are pricier than conventional ones, which presents a problem for limited budgets. But for example, you may prefer to have produce with edible skin to be organic over the produce that you have to peel, like an apple versus an orange.  Or you may prefer to have your milk be organic and your microwave dinners be conventional.

What you have to remember is that every small contribution to eating greener helps.  I used to work at a natural food store that gave me a 20% discount.  When I left the job and lost my discount, I had to think “OK, what do I really need to be organic in my diet?”  I realized that what I really cared about was my produce.  I always buy 100% organic and local produce because the produce is tastier and healthier.  The apples are not waxy and crisper, the strawberries are plumper, and the veggies can convert picky eaters into herbivores.

You may be surprised at how good of a deal you may get if you go to local farmer stands.  Because there are practically no transportation costs, you can get quite a deal on produce that is fresh from the field.  I usually go to an affordable natural food store called MOM’s Organic Market, which you can find in the D.C. region.  All of their produce is organic and local, and a fair amount of the products they sell are also local.  I encourage readers to look for something similar in their area.  There are many local, organic businesses that would love your support that are similar to MOM’s.  You can use this organic store locator to find stores in your area!

To my disliking, I have to shop at conventional grocery stores for some of my other purchases.  My suggestion to readers that want to eat mostly organic, but simply can’t afford it: READ, READ, READ.  And I am not talking about nutrition facts; I am talking about the actual ingredients.  There are certain ones that are damaging and certain ones that aren’t too bad.  A good rule of thumb: learn about the bad ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup and if an ingredient says it’s modified you probably don’t want it.  Also, if you cannot pronounce it, in most cases I would say stay away.  But you have to do your research.  It is a little bit tedious, but hey, it helps in the long run doesn’t it?