Once Again, Argument over Cost of Organics Is Artificial and Misleading

Newscloud: Is organic value worth the extra price?

A friend in his early 40s and I have had a longstanding debate on this topic. He insists that Safeway and Jack-in-the-Box are fine, because he saves money by buying cheaper food. Two weeks ago he went into the hospital for colon surgery and they found advanced cancer. They think they caught it all but cannot be sure.

The medical bills are in the tens of thousands of dollars. How much has my friend saved over the years by eating junk food? I'd bet on the hospitalization side, but no matter what the answer, is cancer worth the dollars?

This is the shortsightedness American society in general exhibits: Don't drive a hybrid because a $10k car is cheaper. Don't ride a bike or take public transportation because a car gets you there faster. Don't bring your own bags to shop because paper and plastic are "free."

We're selling off our future because we only see dollars and cents of today. If the true cost of gasoline were reflected at the pump -- the cost of highways, cleaning up pollution, greenhouse gases, distribution and maintenance, all of these things subsidized by our taxes -- we wouldn't be driving nearly as much. We're giving Planet Earth colon cancer and the hospital bills will far exceed our meager "savings" of today.