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Shopping for organic groceries can be frustrating. Between the expensive prices and underwhelming selection, depending on your location, you might quickly opt out of the search. However, with online shopping, buying organic doesn’t have to break the bank. These days, you can have your groceries, including organic fruits, vegetables, meats and grains, delivered right to your door.
While there are some misconceptions about organic foods, most tend to be better for you and the planet. Organic meats and certain types of produce mean fewer preservatives, additives and other potentially harmful chemicals going into your body. Plus, since they don’t rely on pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, they're less harmful to the environment. Choosing organic over nonorganic will almost always cost you more, but if you poke around a bit, you'll find there are affordable organic options, from chicken to chips.
And if you're wondering if it's generally cheaper to buy groceries online, we did the math and the results might surprise you. Here are the best places to buy organic groceries online in 2024.
Misfits is a produce delivery service that sends mostly organic fruits, vegetables and other limited groceries on a recurring basis. While not everything is organic from Misfits, most of it is and it's all clearly labeled. If you choose to order your fruit and veggies a la cart, you can ensure every single piece of citrus, pepper and pea you receive is organic. If you choose one of Misfits Market's preselected weekly boxes, you'll be more subject to what the company puts in your curated box.
In my experience, everything from Misfits has been high-quality and fresh. The prices are also fair, since Misfits Market often sends produce that is discarded from fancy grocery stores for having an odd shape or scraggly stem -- you know, the misfits. The minimum order is $25 per week and weekly plans go up from there. Shipping will run you another $7 unless your order is over $70.
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If you don't have access to good local produce, Amazon Fresh has one of the largest selections of organic produce available for delivery. You'll find staples like organic greens, kale, cucumbers, carrots and onions. But you can also stock your cart with harder-to-find produce such as organic herbs and fruit like mangoes and pluots. In typical fashion, Amazon is able to keep prices low, so you'll often get organic produce at an equal or lower cost than a grocery store.
Thrive Market is an online grocery membership service that specializes in healthy, organic foods. If you don't have a good market with organic goods, you'll be able to find a lot of them at Thrive. That includes organic beans, canned foods, spices, tea, coffee, nut milk and snacks. Not everything stocked by Thrive is organic but the service has a higher rate of organic options than most, often at cheaper prices than the supermarket.
Membership to Thrive costs $60 a year or $5 a month and gets you exclusive member deals and free gifts. You can set up recurring deliveries on staples and save a bit or just order as you go.
FreshDirect is currently only available in the Northeast but the grocery delivery service stocks a range of organic meats including chicken, beef, ground turkey and sausages. FreshDirect stocks Farmer's Focus, an organic poultry brand. You'll also see a selection of Applegate Farms' frozen products including breaded chicken tenders and patties, all of which are humanely raised and some of which are organic.
Of the online butchers we've tried, Crowd Cow has just about the largest selections of meats and that includes lots of organic chicken options.
The service allows you to build a box with organic chicken, beef, pork, sausages, seafood and specialty meats too. If it's organic meat you're looking for, you can simply plug organic into the search bar and see options that include Farmer Focus whole chickens, chicken thighs, wings and breasts. There's also organic ground beef, precooked meatballs and several variety packs to choose from.
With Crowd Cow, you can order a one-time delivery or make it a recurring order and save 5% on each shipment.
If you're craving chicken wings, you're in luck -- the classic game-day fare finally dropped to a lower price per pound than before the pandemic. Wild Fork Foods has organic wings as cheap as $5 a pound, along with other meats at budget prices.
Buying organic beef is an option, but many would argue that truly grass-fed beef (beef that is raised on a diet of only grass) is better for you than grain-fed beef, even if it's fed organic grain.
While it's not certified organic, ButcherBox sells only grass-fed beef along with organic chicken and other quality meats. This butcher is a subscription service so you can't make a one-time order. You can customize your box as you go and skip deliveries or pause your subscription, as needed.
Amazon Fresh doesn't have a massive supply of organic meats but it does stock Verde Farms 100% grass-fed, organic beef and some cuts can be had at Amazon's signature discounted prices. A two-pack of sirloin steaks goes for just $17 or nab a pound of ground beef for just $8.
If you want truly organic, grass-fed beef you have options but you'll pay a little extra for it. Greensbury Farms stocks a large inventory of USDA organic ground beef, steaks and roasts. A two-pack of 10-ounce ribeyes or strip steaks will run you $36. A 2-pound package of ground beef goes for $25.
Greensbury also stocks organic chicken, turkey, wild seafood and more.
If you're looking for organic meal kits, Green Chef is the best service to try. The mostly organic meal kit service sources high-quality ingredients for complete meals and sends them to your door to whip up easy, healthy meals. While not every product can be certified organic, Green Chef aims to include as much organic meat and produce as possible. This means the price per serving is a little higher than other meal kit companies -- about $12 for the cheapest plan -- but it's your best option if eating organic is important to you.
Read CNET's full review of Green Chef here.