Frozen v. Fresh food

"many producers (big industrial farms) are simply in it for the profit so the quality suffers."

however, some may be in it to help feed the world. if everyone grew organically, the earth could not support the population that it does. (of course, this does not mean that everyone has enough food, however, more are able to buy it DUE TO large industrial farms that can "mass produce" enough to sell cheaply.)

having grown up on a grain/cattle farm, i can tell you... the life of a farmer IS NOT easy. as a matter of fact, my dad went bankrupt trying to keep the farm going.

that said, we had a HUGE garden and the things that i miss most are:
GREAT raspberries
FRESH peas (not frozen or canned but straight from the garden)
 
Cara, I like that you're thinking outside the box on this one, but I am guessing that most people who grow things do it to earn a living and maybe if they feed some people, that's great too. I'm not talking about the "family farm" producers here--as most of them still have a conscience about what and how they do things--and they are in the minority as far as numbers go. Most, like the situation with your father, went broke to try to keep competing with the "big guys." I'm talking about the industrial conglomerates who run the food supply (insert companies like Nestle here).

I know the life of a farmer is not easy as most of my family is in agriculture too--ranching and farming and I've done my share of ranch work as well--branding, calving, haying, taking care of bum lambs and calves, cleaning barns, cleaning chicken coupes, collecting eggs, going to auction, vaccinations--and a lot of it done in the snow and blizzard conditions. It's a sun up to sun down (and often in the middle of the night) job and it's thankless most of the time.

I'm just lamenting the fact that most people have never and will never get to taste how vegetables once tasted and were meant to taste. And the nutritional value of those vegetables is depleted as well so even those who can afford to buy them aren't going to be that much healthier for eating them. Of course, there is a wide range of poverty levels--there are those who are starving to death and often there are other factors at play--it's not just a supply-demand scheme. It is also geo-political so you can grow enough food to feed everyone and still people will be starving because of corrupt governments etc.
 
I am using everything organic from Australia (ordered on line) and they are very fresh when delivered. Since AUD$ is low now the price is actually pretty good compared to City Super, Great etc.

For frozen veggies it is totally fine except that you have to check the label to make sure that no salt is added.

I am using canned organic tomato from Waitrose as I found it hard to find organic tomato (not from China). I use it to cook pasta for my 1 year old son. Do you think it is bad?
 
I am interested to hear what you all do for fruit for your young ones. My 11 month old daughter loves most fruit like papaya, mango, dragonfruit, kiwi etc and I am finding it really hard to find reliable sources for these. I have been to some of the local organic markets but hard to find much beyond bananas. Imported organic is either non-existent or frightfully expensive. (mostly I just find it hard to find a good selection). I would settle for non-organic as long as it was non-China.

What do you all do?
 
much of the fruit (excepting tropical fruit) is from overseas.

my mother used to be the produce manager in a large canadian supermarket. she was always surprised to find that the fruit here was EXACTLY the same as what she got. how could she tell? she saw the boxes they came in.

apples, oranges, pineapple, bananas, grapes, cherries, raspberries, blueberries, melons (honeydew & rock/cantaloupe) were just a few she noticed.
 
Cyberfish88 I bought organic fruit - for organic apple, pear and banana, you can buy them from Olivers, 360, great, wellcome Repluse Bay, and Parknshop International. For the other ones like grapes, nectarine, cherry etc, I order from Aussie Organic. Since AUS$ is now much lower it is actually not that expensive. Order has to be placed by 1pm on Sunday and they will deliver the following Friday. I have to say the fruit and veggies are really fresh even though they are shipped from Australia.

For soft skin fruit I normally go with organic as they tend to have more pesticide than thick skin ones. Have you heard of the dirty dozen and the clean dozen ? For fruit like pineapple, avocado, banana, orange, papaya, since the skin is thick and the farmers tend to use less pesticide and you don't really need to go for organic (though if i can find I will)

For non-organic fruit I will use a good veggie wash to wash them before consumption. Same as vegetable.

Carang - I read a few threads saying that canned vegetable are no good so I was just wondering. But to be honest, can't really find organic tomato (not from China) and most of the tomato are not ripe and tasty so I am happy to use canned ones.
 
i would say...
fresh is best
frozen is next
canned is last

but that DOESN'T mean that they are BAD for you, they just aren't as great as the fresh variety.

we use canned tomatoes all the time, shepherd's pie, spag bol, eggplant parmasean etc.
 
Donkey, if you want fresh, vine-ripenened, delicious, organic tomatoes, go through this thread and find the link for the Veggie Van and you can get them that way. Just ate some this past week (well, the ones I ate, I picked myself!) and they were GREAT!
 
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