Anyone who has spent time overseas living in perhaps the United States or parts of Europe is in for a rude awakening upon returning to Australian shores. The demand for organic, natural and/or local products in those markets has risen to a point where entire supermarkets specialize only in those products, making them as easily accessible as conventional grocery products. With this kind of scale, the price of organic and natural products has also declined in those markets.
While the organic food movement has gone “mainstream” overseas, the infiltration of organic products into the major Australian supermarkets is pretty dismal. And those products that are available often carry price tags of up to twice the conventional equivalent of the product.
By “major Australian supermarkets” I of course mean Coles and Woolies. Whether the lack of organic products in our major supermarkets, is due to lack of customer demand, or a deliberate business choice on Coles and Woolies behalf, I cannot speculate. But the fact remains, if you are in search of organic food and products, Coles and Woolies can meet only a small part of your shopping needs.
Fortunately independents, local producers, and smaller supermarkets are rapidly stepping into the organic market to fill the gap. Yet a search online yields only a small list of providers of organic products in the Canberra region which is woefully out of date.
That’s where this blog comes in.
Organic or Natural was established to document one families search for organic or natural products in the Canberra region. The goal being to develop a list of suppliers who not only provide organic and/or natural products, but with an emphasis on price since the high cost of Australia’s conventional groceries is well documented in a continual expose on either This Day Tonight or A Current Affair.
Since readymade organic products can be either expensive, or impossible to find, Organics or Natural will also focus on organics DIY. For example, the cost of a ready-baked organic loaf of bread? In excess of $6. Learn to bake your own bread from organic flour? About $1.50 per loaf. Learn how to make your own organic products with us as we slowly replace the conventional products we buy with homemade organic versions instead.
Organics or Natural will also look at growing our own produce using organic principals. As beginners, this journey will likely document as many failures as successes, but over time this endeavor should reduce our reliance on commercial providers, or provide products we are unable to source commercially.
Each of these three areas will be labeled separately on this blog, allowing those interested in only one aspect to quickly find what they are looking for. The three footer sections show the latest posts under each category:
Shopping: where to source organic or natural products
Making: Recipes and procedures for making your own organic products
Growing: Growing your own fruits and vegetables using organic principles
Committing to using organic and natural products isn’t as simple as loading your shopping cart at the local Woolies with conventional grocery items, but Organics and Natural hopes to make the choice to consume chemical and pesticide free organic and natural products as simple as possible.
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