We are bombarded with messaging everyday about organic versus non organic - and all of them perpetuate the same myth: that organic fruit costs more just because of the label.
It's imprinted into our subconscious mind from a young age that we pick up the shiniest red apple we can find at the cheapest price.
These feelings are based on food ignorance- the idea that all fruit tastes the same; an organic basket of figs will taste the same as the non organic choice. While essence of figs can be engineered in a lab, the true nature of a fig can only be experienced organically.
Don't forget, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides don't 100% wash off in a quick rinse. Residue permeates every nook and cranny, have you seen how much surface area on a fig is edible? All of it; would you dip a delicious brown turkey fig in pesticide cheese before throwing it down the hatch? Of course not and neither should anyone else.
It gets alot trickier when you get into fruit where you don't eat the flesh. It's so easy to pick up a $.99 cent avocado that was grown on a factory farm, what's the difference? Well the difference is in fact huge! Did you know Lamb Hass avocados need nutrient dense soil. Meaning naturally occurring bacteria must be able to breathe and reproduce to break down organic matter that then releases all the nitrogen an avocado tree needs. How else will you get up to 40% oil content in a Lamb Hass?
We can start to build on that food education cycle by supporting locally grown farms like ours and many others that are 100% certified organic by the USDA. By supporting locally grown fruits and vegetables you not only support the farmer but the jobs you provide that help make organic dragon fruit possible.
And when we change the way we consume we change the way the world functions for everyone.
So when you're confronted by a $3.00 dollar basket of mission figs ask yourself, "Am I simply getting away with a $3.00 basket of figs or am I being a vehicle of change?"
See it's so much easier to walk away with a $3.00 basket of non organic figs as it is to challenge the corporate farms that exploit our soils, exploit our food ignorance and exploit the subsidy structures that benefit them and keep prices uncompetitive.
So pay attention to your food ignorance and keep striving for purveyors of fruit that are as transparent as we are.
Don't forget about the secondary and tertiary effects our choices have. For instance, what may seem like a harmless dragon fruit might have actually made its way across international borders. This subtropical fruit grows on a cactus that loves warm and humid climates. Meaning very few places on earth can provide this delicacy in abundance.
Good thing for you, Pedro's Organic Ranch is located in a subtropical region in Southern California, Fallbrook. Just 16 miles east of the Pacific Ocean, Fallbrook consistently exceeds 90 degrees in the summer making warm and humid for both white flesh and pink flesh Dragon Fruit to flourish.