Why I am not Devoted to Organic (part one)

For a long time I just bought the basic generic brand peanut butter for my family.  I recently decided to take a peek behind the label and really wasn’t sure what I would find.

 

It didn’t look so bad and I was pleased, at least, that there was no high-fructose corn syrup.  But I decided to check at the store to see if there was a “better” peanut butter to buy instead.  At first I skipped over the “Natural”  crunchy peanut butter (because we all know that the word “natural” has no regulation on it) and was looking to find perhaps an organic peanut butter.  I put a few jars of the same generic brand “organic crunchy peanut butter” into my cart before stopping to actually look at the label.

The organic peanut butter’s  ingredients list looked nearly identical to the original–it just had the word “organic” in front of everything.  “Organic peanuts”,   “organic cane sugar”, “organic soybean oil”.  It was one of those record-scratching music-stopping moments for me as I quickly returned the organic peanut butter to the shelf and took a closer look at the ingredients of the “natural crunchy peanut butter.”

 

Peanuts and salt.  I don’t see the word “organic” on there but I don’t see a long list of unnecessary additives either.  I wonder why peanut butter even needs to have sugar, or molasses in it?  When we use peanut butter it’s always paired with something sweet (jelly, honey, or bananas for sandwiches or apple slices, or raisins and celery for snacking) so there’s no need for the peanut butter itself to be sweetened.

The natural peanut butter is a little different because it needs to be stirred and refrigerated, but I was relieved to discover that it really only needed to be stirred well once, then once it is refrigerated it holds itself together so you don’t have to stir it every single time or anything.  And really, the product requiring refrigeration actually inspires confidence in me since Michael Pollan has warned of eating food-like products that lack the ability to ever  go bad.

Basically what it comes down to is that I value fewer additives and less processing over the “organic” label here.  The natural peanut butter just is more like a “real food” than the alternative.  If I come across an organic brand of natural peanut butter that’s cost-effective for my family I will probably switch to that, but meanwhile I’m ditching the organic.

 

Come back next time for another situation where I have recently decided to abandon the organic label for a superior option,  but also a discussion on my positive feelings for supporting the “organic” products that I do.