DeborahL wrote:Organics from the store aren't really organic? This upsets me because I get organics for my rabbits.
There was a TV spot maybe four or five months ago about Whole Foods' frozen organic veggies, many of which come from...China. Given recent experiences in the U.S. and other countries with foodstuffs from China (the 2007 pet-food melamine poisoning disaster, milk powder adulteration in New Zealand and Australia as well as China for which at least one Chinese executive was executed, the excessive lead in toys and candy on repeated occasions, etc.), it's hard to believe that Whole Foods has examined the entire "pipeline" for these frozen veggies from China and found them to be organic.
If you're concerned about what you're purchasing for your bunnies, talk to the owner/manager of the store you purchase from. *Ask* what examinations/inspections/certifications they themselves have performed to ensure that the line of supply is clean. They may see you as a little obsessive, but after a while you get used to that.
Just explain about the bunnies; tell him/her that the bunnies are your babies, that their life expectancies are already much too short just because they're rabbits, and you're doing everything you can to help them live as long as possible and be as healthy as possible during that all-too-short life. Most people have a soft spot for pets, although you might run up against someone who thinks the best use of organically fed bunnies is Hasenpfeffer.
The produce store I so often refer to sometimes gets
organic produce when there's a "deal" at the wholesale produce market (at the Port of Oakland), and when it's organic, Pete labels it as such. Most of his produce is least-toxic or transitionally grown, esp. that grown in the U.S. or Canada.
One reason I'm hesitant to purchase
out-of-season tomatoes, peppers, etc. from south of our border is transit time. Even when it's not totally organic, Pete's produce is always, absolutely always, FRESH. His truck goes to the Port Market on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, arriving at the shop approx. 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. If a "heavy cooking holiday" (e.g., Thanksgiving, Christmas, Superbowl) is coming up, he makes an extra run the day before the holiday.

(I think this is because, several years ago, I made a small scene about Nick & Pete--Nick was the father, but passed away August 2009--running out of Brussels sprouts by ONE O'CLOCK the day before Thanksgiving!)
I'll take FRESH over organic, if it's something I cannot grow. But this is yet another reason to buy IN-SEASON produce: it hasn't had to be forced with fertilizers, immunized with insecticides, or protected by any other possibly pestilential products to survive at a time wholly contrary to its nature, *and* it hasn't had to fly/float in from half a world away.
Cynthia