I am currently reaching the end of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver. What an inspiration! Kingsolver documents a year of her family's life eating purely local foods. I'm now excited for spring when I can begin my own garden and visit the farmer's market (which is open year-round) to support local food producers. Inspired, I restocked our kitchen after 2 empty-pantry weeks with a variety of organic and local foods. We plan to gradually transition to socially responsible foods in order to ease our budget into this new way of eating. It is not greatly expensive, but I do still find myself comparing price per ounce for spinach versus organic spinach and know that our finances aren't quite ready for a full-on transition.

However, the benefits will outweigh the costs significantly. When I think about the chemicals that constantly surround me and the way most food animals are treated, I can't stand the idea of continuing to eat the way I did. 

So my January priorities for socially responsible food include:

• organic apples (which are mere cents more expensive then non-organic)
• potatoes (potatoes and apples are some of the most pesticide-contaminated vegetables, even after being washed)
• grass-finished beef (beef that begin and end their life on a pasture diet)
• free-range chicken (chicken that are allowed to roam the land and eat more naturally
• organic and local wheat flour in order to bake bread (how tasty does that sound!? We'll see how it turns out.)

These choices are never easy. I have the advantage of living in an urban area with many shopping choices. The organic section at my grocery store continues to grow, and if that doesn't suffice I can shop elsewhere, such as Angus Meat Market. Ultimately, it feels good to make these choices, however slowly we have to make them.