In my late teens and early twenties I did a lot of traveling (Yes!  With an anaphylactic food allergy!... but that's another topic for another blog).  One of the trips I took was to Costa Rica for an ecology class. Unforgettable trip. Changed me forever.  Changed me so much that it affects my buying habits every. single. week.  at the grocery store.

If I only buy one organic item from the store (read: if we can only fit one organic item into the budget for the week),  it is bananas.  I have a house full of little kids and banana lovers... and with winter on it's way they become a fresh-fruit staple.
So, here's why we do organic :

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/09/24/225793450/global-love-of-bananas-may-be-hurting-costa-ricas-crocodiles

not only are rivers and wildlife affected but THIS was once rainforest...

http://mongabay-images.s3.amazonaws.com/cr/600/costa-rica-d_0192.jpg

This obviously isn't my own image, but I have a book of similar photos at home.
you get the point.

Or maybe not?   This is not high-desert.  It's rainforest.  It's the world's lungs and it's supposed to look like this:

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/costa-rica-photos/#/santa-helena_10967_600x450.jpg

Soooo  we should all pay $.40 extra a lb. for bananas.

Oh, and the carbon footprint is HUGE compared to locally grown produce. The least I can do is not let the last couple sitting up there on the shelf rot and be thrown away (ok, composted... but still they didn't make the trip all the way to NY from Central America just to be thrown on a compost pile).