By Laura Galbraith, Staff Writer

It is no secret that most organic foods cost more than their mass-produced, conventionally grown counterparts.

Just ask Deborah Rustin Cyr.

Although she tends her own organic garden, she still spends up to $600 a month on groceries from Greenlife, a healthful food market in North Chattanooga, and usually that food is bought for just herself and her husband.

“I try to buy all my produce organic if given a choice,” said Mrs. Cyr. “My second choice would be to buy things locally because I’m really concerned about the environment too.”

According to a 2006 article in a leading consumer magazine, shoppers on average pay 50 percent extra for organic foods. Additionally, buyers can easily spend up to 100 percent more on items like milk and meat.

Mrs. Cyr, the director of volunteer services at Trinity Hospice and a visual artist, said that although she and her husband do not bring in a huge yearly income, they are unwilling to compromise their food choices.

“As poor as I’ve ever been in my entire life, (good quality) food is the last thing I cut,” she said. “I’ll eat more beans and less meat, but I still won’t cut the quality of my food.”

For the Cyr family, the decision to go organic has everything to do with health. About 35 years ago, Mrs. Cyr gave birth to her son, who, being premature, had health problems. His asthma was especially bad, and doctors told her that he would have to be on medication his whole life.

“I thought that was crazy, he’s only 6 months old,” she said. “And so I started doing research then, and that was what got me into nutrition and eating in a different way.”

Mrs. Cyr said changing her son’s diet improved his health tremendously. She believes the additives and artificial colors that had been in his food caused him the most problems.

“You’d give him a hot dog, and he would be off the wall and have trouble breathing,” she said. “It was awful.”

Mrs. Cyr said that she and her family balance the high costs of their food by conserving in a lot of other ways. They do not eat at restaurants often, and she and her husband share a car, which further cuts down on insurance costs.

“I don’t like to shop,” she said. “That’s probably a big reason why I don’t spend a lot of money (on other things).”

Marion Pound, a teacher who now stays at home with her two young daughters, can relate to what it is like to buy healthier, pricier foods while living off a limited income. Although she said her main priority is to buy locally from farmers, organic food still makes up a part of her family’s diet.

Mrs. Pound said she spends money on organic foods because doing so benefits the environment and local farming communities. However, she said that her family has to make trade-offs to afford such a lifestyle.

“We’re on a pretty tight budget, but what we’ve done, because it’s such a priority, is we don’t have a lot of other things,” she said. “We don’t have cable, we don’t have a cell phone that we use regularly, and we don’t have much Internet access.”

Mrs. Pound said that her family tries to walk a lot of places so that money is saved on gas. Often she buys day-old bread. Still, she believes the sacrifices are worth it.

“I just feel like everybody chooses how they’re going to spend their money, and I think how you spend your money reflects your priorities,” she said. “If we really believe in this, then we’ve got to be willing for it to hurt a little,” she said.

On the other hand, Mrs. Pound said that managing money for healthier foods does not have to be incredibly painful. All people need to do is take note of how much they spend daily on coffee or a fast-food breakfast on the way to work.

“There’s your money for organic right there,” she said.

Mary L. Lynch, a ceramic artist from Birchwood, Tenn., said she buys local and organic products as much as possible because it is better for her health and the environment.

She said consumers of organic meat know that the animals are not raised on factory farms and subjected to antibiotics and growth hormones.

“It’s one way I feel like I can spend my money and actually make a difference,” she said. “How much we spend is important, so I kind of try to tailor (my purchases) to what’s seasonal and what’s on sale and that sort of thing.”

Ms. Lynch said she understands that the high price of organic foods is because a lot of hard work and time commitment goes into its preparation.

“I’m a craftsperson, so I realize that there are other factors involved,” she said.

Above all, Ms. Lynch feels that the extra cost she has to pay does not measure up to the detrimental cost caused from large-scale farming.

“We don’t realize the cost of that,” she said. “It’s pay one way or pay another.”

Ms. Lynch said that although her friends and family are not critical of her spending habits, they do not see that buying organic is worth the trade-off.

“They just see it as so expensive to what they’re used to paying,” said Ms. Lynch. “And they’re not wrong about that, but I just look at it in a bigger picture.”

E-mail Laura Galbraith at lgalbraith@timesfreepress.com

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