MaryJanesFarm | Simply MJ

October 31, 2002

Your kids will love visiting a farm and learning that food comes from the ground and not the grocery store shelf.

QUESTION: I would like to feed my family organic foods, but where do I start? They seem more expensive, so I've held off making the change. Every time I look at my pantry, I feel overwhelmed. -Jodi Pomponio, Deary, ID

MARYJANE: Start with one food item your family eats on a regular basis. If you find time to bake, switch to organic flour. Make something like organic chocolate chip cookies. After they've gobbled them up, tell your kids they were organic! Don't start with something that is foreign to them, like organic tofu. And these days, you don't have to go to specialty stores to find good organic items. Many large retail grocery stores are devoting sections of their stores to organic produce and other items. If there is a co-op or health food store in your area, start there. The selection will be better. Also, they usually offer economy bulk items. If you buy in bulk, you can probably buy organic food and match what you spend at a regular grocery store. As is always the case, if you're on a tight budget, stay away from processed foods, organic or not. The first time you go into a natural foods co-op, you might feel like a foreigner. Grab an employee and tell them this is your first visit and you're a little intimidated. Ask them to direct you to the foods that are comparable in price, or better yet, cheaper than the price charged at a regular grocery store. Most health food stores have this information available. Unless they've forgotten they were once in your shoes, they should be glad to help.

Next, slowly introduce organic or locally grown vegetables into your diet. There are more and more farmers' markets sprouting up around the country. Call your Chamber of Commerce and solicit their help. If you find a local organic farmer, he or she may be willing to trade work on their farm for freshly harvested vegetables. If you develop relationships with farmers, on occasion they will have extra produce and would gladly give it to someone appreciative, rather than waste it. Your kids will love visiting a farm and learning that food comes from the ground and not the grocery store shelf. Ask around and find out if there is anyone producing eggs or meat locally. In my small town of Moscow, Idaho, we can now buy locally grown organic eggs, pork and beef along with a wide selection of vegetables and fruits, all from different organic farmers.

QUESTION: Our landlord just replaced the carpet in our office and the smell is awful. It doesn't seem safe to me and I think he should remove it. I've read that indoor air pollution can be 10 times worse than Los Angeles on a bad day. -Marisa Purdue, Moscow, ID

MARYJANE: There's good news. You can seal the carpet in your office with a three-step process using products that form a barrier to prevent outgassing.

Nester Noe, a manufacturer of paints and watersealers, became alarmed when he and his employees started becoming ill in the 1970s. Mr. Noe asked his company chemist to explore alternatives to toxic ingredients. His first product was Safe Seal, which got its first major trial at an armed forces hospital in Nevada, a hospital that had closed because it actually had made patients sicker. After coating the interior of the facility with Noe's Safe Seal, it reopened successfully. Today, Noe runs a company that provides a complete range of chemically responsible building and maintenance products. Log on to www.afmsafecoat.com (800-239-0321) to find a store near you and check out all their healthy products. One of their dealers, Builder's Wholesale Supply in Fairfield, Iowa, will ship AFM products to you via mail order. Call and ask for Joel Hirshberg (888-405-0222). Joel is a great resource, and he can explain more to you about the three-step process. It involves renting a carpet shampooer, buying a small hand-held garden sprayer, using a clean garage broom and then letting the carpet dry completely. Carpets are built with nasty things like formaldehyde and 1,1,1 trichloroethane that release an alphabet soup of unpronounceable compounds, most of which challenge your immune system. Many of these toxins stay with you and accumulate in your body. Outgassing is like evaporation, only with solid materials. It happens because even the densest solid material isn't really solid. There are spaces between the molecules, and molecules work their way into your air. Explain this to your landlord. Soon, you can have carpeting that is safe.

Send your questions to MaryJane Butters, c/o MaryJanesFarm, 1000 Wild Iris Lane, Moscow, Idaho, 83843. Questions may also be e-mailed to maryjane@maryjanesfarm.org. Please include your name and daytime telephone number. For more information, visit www.maryjanesfarm.org


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