(But, I do have to say that I lean towards products from the U.S. as opposed to those imported from elsewhere. And, the recent news report that brought to light the fact that many of the organic products available from Whole Foods are purchased from China, where their organic certification may be in question, will give me more reason to think about from where my organic choices come.) 

I’m not a big packaged, frozen or canned foods buyer, so I am assuming there won’t be a big challenge for me when I hit the middle aisles. I’ll be able to breeze right through. 

My first stop when entering the store was the produce department. It was a huge produce section, but unfortunately, too few organic offerings for my liking. As I perused the somewhat unkempt and quite small organic section, I quickly decided ‘no’ on apples, since the $4.99 a pound price tag was not something I was about to pay. I did however, decided on the $4.99 for 16 ounces strawberries. I felt pretty good at the price . . . that is, until I made my way to the other end of the produce section where I found a buy one, get one free deal on conventional strawberries. Wow, two for one! For a moment I thought about it, but in the end, I decided to buy organic over conventional.

I continued to struggle in the produce section, unable to find the organic items I typically produce, and when I did, they just didn’t look appealing. They were dried out, wilted, or even on the edge of freshness. Because of the lack of availability of organic produce, I think my typical 80/20 ratio of organic to conventional produce was switched to 20/80 during this shopping experience. 

I slowly made my way through the grocery store, warily choosing alternatives to those items I typically purchase – granola, cereal, butter, cheddar cheese, dishwashing detergent.