I don't buy all organic, but we buy Organic Milk for our kids and Organic Fruit, Vegetables and Meat also seem worth the higher prices to me.

By the way, buying local is as important to me for these kinds of foods.

The main reason for buying Organic to me is to limit pesticide intake, to support sustainable food production and to get better quality produce.

OK, fixed the slant for you (from 'No, I'm cheap' to 'No, I don't).

But I don't buy your argument.

Just because many Organic Producers are "the same corporations that grow regular food" that doesn't say anything about the quality.

If they grow the Organic stuff without chemicals that is preferable to me.

But of course, I'm buying locally from our Farmers Market as much as I can - but most of that stuff is also Organic.

Seriously, health nuts are going to feel pretty silly when they are in the hospital dying of nothing.

I agree. I buy local and/or organic whenever possible simply to avoid pesticides, antibiotics, and genetically altered food as much as I can. I know it's impossible to avoid all carcinogens all the time, but if a little extra cash means I might be actively avoiding some of them, that's good enough for me.

I also grow my own food whenever possible for the same reason. Plus, anything I grow myself seems to taste better. Nothing is quite as nice as the fruits and vegetables of my own labor.

I buy mostly local and/or organic.

With animal products I care about the organic label. Knowing my food is free of added hormones is important to me, as is knowing the animals providing it have access to the outdoors. With grocery items, the organic label is more of a shortcut than something I care about directly -- those items labeled organic are more likely to have a simple ingredients list with real food items, which I prefer over long lists of mostly preservatives and chemical shortcuts.

You do have to stay on top of greenwashing (and out-and-out fraud), but to me the value is worth it.

As for cost, I've noticed, at least in our region, that while conventional food costs have risen dramatically lately, my grocery bill has not. The organic foods that come from the farmer's market actually cost less at this point than conventional foods at the grocery store, and organic grocery items are comparable or only very slightly higher. Using coupons available at the local co-op and shopping sales for those things not available locally, I usually spend less for organic grocery items than conventional ones, even on those things that cost more.

What I don't believe is that one should feel morally superior for shopping organic or inferior for not. I shop that way because it makes sense for me, is easily available, and while we're not well off -- cooking is a hobby, so buying premium ingredients and spending less on entertainment and eating out than others might is a happy trade off.

I try to support my local farmers. Not all of them are organic however. I raise honeybees. In SoFla you cannot have organic honey because there are no two mile areas that are guaranteed to be chemical free.

Besides, the money is better spent on beer.

You seem to have trouble understanding, what everybody else is talking about.

Why don't you read the Wikipedia introduction on organic food provided in the debate topic.

And enjoy your inorganic breakfast tomorrow.

Animals suffer less - I'm all for less suffering.

For some things (meat, fish, poultry, etc) I will pay the extra because the things that are fed to farm animals are horrifying. When it comes to fruits, vegetables, and grains, I would buy those if they were just a little cheaper and bit more variety.

I read the definition the first time.

You fail to see the irony of calling organic food organic. Either all food is organic or none of it is because it is produced with water.

Water is an inorganic substance.

Yeah. PROTECT THE SOIL. Lol

yeah it is good for the environment (not healthier btw) but what the uneducated masses don't know will not hurt them :D

and I am sorta pro local food... not flying food in from abroad. But I do find it hard to stay away from those kiwis.

I buy organic fruit and vegetables, and buy locally. Fruit that hasn't been pumped with water so it'll stay shiny even after being flown round the world is more appealing to me, and I like being able to buy from markets and local shops. Supermarkets and monoculture make the world a soulless place.

And while manic environmentalism isn't my thing, monoculture really is a problem, and since no-one else has mentioned it I will. Intensive farming of the same crop, which has been more and more common since the Industrial Revolution, is nowadays quicker and cheaper than having to deal with multiple fields of different crops. But growing stuff that uniform is bad for biodiversity, not least because hedgerows get destroyed, and is also dangerous. If a disease or pest destroys the year's cotton, it's a lot worse it that's the only thing you're growing. Look at the Irish potato famine - a massive catastrophe. Monoculture destroys the genetic diversity that's needed to stop species being universally vulnerable, reducing their risks of survival, while at the same time making huge numbers of people dependant on that survival.

Not that I'm saying not buying organically is going to cause famine, but in the long run its a bad thing to have massive scale farming. You lose biodiversity AND genetic diversity within a species, and that's risky. There are also a lot of smaller-scale implications: planting the same thing year after year depletes the soil of the organic nutrients that sustain life, and that can cause desertification, and it'll reduce the quality of crops and crop yields. To combat this a lot of fertiliser is needed. But industrial fertilisers are inefficient, to the point that only about 10% of them are taken up by the crops, and the rest runs off and contaminates the surrounding. This causes bioaccumulation, which means animals and plants absorb things they're not meant to and then they build up in food chains and end up poisoning animals. It also causes eutrophication in lakes, which starves water of oxygen and kills fish (learn slightly more: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=171975). .)

So basically, organic food supports small farmers, which I think is good, especially if they're local and you're not just picking up the bag labelled organic in the supermarket. And - unlike the mass production in monoculture - it's also not horrifically bad for the environment, either in a long term killing-the-planet way or in an immediate poisoning-the-wildlife way. So why not pay a little extra?

Do you have any evidence for the regulation about organic food? The Soil Association is the biggest UK organic certifier, and their list of industry standards seems fairly stringent. There's a massive PDF on their website (labelled "Farming and Growing Industry Standards" in the evidence link).

An random example from the 240 pages of detail:

"you must not:

•wash organic fruit and vegetables in water with more chlorine than allowed in drinking water (5ppm)

•use wax coatings directly onto fruit or vegetables."

Seems pretty stringent to me. And associating organic food with yuppies doesn't devalue it. Maybe some people consider 'green' a fashion statement, but that doesn't mean have to react against them instead of making your own decisions about whether the environment's worth it.

Only when its readily available, like right next to the other food, no going to different aisle for me.

comment deleted by satan

I buy organic fruits and vegetables whenever i can at Henry's. All their produce is organic and it usually cost the same as non-organic products in other supermarkets.

I also like organic milk and soy milk after my spanish teacher in middle school told our class a really disturbing story about the effects of non-organic milk on children. >__<

I'm a vegetarian, so i don't know much about organic animal products, but the places that sell all organic produce in my area usually keep all the animal products organic as well.

Except for dairy products, we usually find cheaper or same priced organic products. I've only seen organic dairy products cost a little more.

I agree that local food is good, but I cannot agree with your statement that "what the uneducated masses don't know will not hurt them." The cigarette companies said that same thing... ;)

i dissagree you should gho and buy some GM mangos they look pretty with their green flurecent glow

Pick it up at the weekly farmer's market (most of it is organic). It doesn't cost any more, and the farmers are usually wicked cool. (And have you seen the chicks who go there!?) The reduced shipping distances from buying local organic also reduce fossil fuel consumption.

it depends what type of organic food it is.

Idk how much it costs. Its healthy and that's all that matters.

Healthy and better than diet crap. Organic peanut butter is pretty good.

!?

hahahahahahahahahaha

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I don't buy all organic mainly because organic stores aren't that close, and the extra gas plus the extra price for organic, isn't always worth it. But I do prefer healthy eating, and if I had all the money in the world, I'd buy everything that didn't have preservatives and all those ridiculous chemicals in them. Plus, organic truly tastes better, (sometimes). It's a taste you got to acquire though; the first time you eat an organic cupcake, you might want to gag, but if you eat them enough, you'll love them.

Ha, talk about a slanted debate! I don't regularly buy organic food but I wouldn't consider myself cheap! I buy a variety of healthy foods but I don't necessarily think the word organic means that its better or better for you.

Unless you are buying locally from the producer, organic food basically just yuppie-food grown by the same corporations that grow regular food.

Check out this graphic for a great peek at who really produces organic food.

No, that crap will kill you.

No, I don't really see the value of buying organic foods, especially when companies are still being caught lying about their organic labels.

No I'm not, yet I do care.... just not enough to find out why I should go Organic. :-?

I don't really see the additional value of buying "organic". I think that the regulation around what is considered to be "organic" is so lax that it is primarily a way for companies to charge more for food that has no real additional value. As Loudacris mentioned, I think it is primarily a yuppie movement that people try to attach to such as being green by driving a hybrid Lexus or wearing Crocs. Not that I have a problem with any of those things, just not for me.

Organic foods are a niche market, which have unfortunately made it into the mainstream. I don't see the point in paying more for less. There are people who like to buy organic foods, but for the same reason they buy an ipod over say, a zune, It is more of a marginalised market, with an overpriced product, trying to make it inot the mainstream.

Organic stuff just means that you have to wash off the manure before you eat it instead of wash off the chemicals. BTW, H2O is a chemical used on food and you don't hear people complaining about that.

There is no such thing as organic food

All food is grown in water. Water is not an organic substance.

Made

I read the article what does that have to do with what I said?

No where in the wikipedia article does it say food grown without water. There is no such thing as organic food.

Or you could say all food is organic. Choices?

With so many adjectives why chose to call it call it 'organic' when the major growing medium is inorganic? You might as well call the Titanic unsinkable.

Made I hope I get more then just water for breakfast.

In line with this, the word Organic is just a huge buzz word that gets thrown around by advertisers and a reason to mark up prices. However... real organic food from a farmers market is pretty tasty.

The word organic has different meanings in different contexts.

The definition of Organic chemistry has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

What everybody else is talking about is this meaning of Organic:

"Organic foods are produced according to certain production standards, meaning they are grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives. Livestock are reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones. In most countries, organic produce must not be genetically modified."

Water is not an inorganic substance. Hydrogen, carbon and oxygen are the core of organic chemistry; guess where the hydrogen and the oxygen come from? In photosynthesis carbon dioxide and water get turned into sugars, in hydrolysis reactions water gets made from organic molecules. Not much water is made by organisms, some is, so it's arguably inorganic.

Nope - it's too expensive. My relatives are all farmers and we get a freezer-full of fresh sweet corn and cucumbers right off the vine. Talk about flavor! You don't know what you're missing until you've had fresh-picked veggies. Grocery store stuff (organic or not) doesn't come close.

No, because it costs so much more, and does not offer any extra nutritional value. I know that is most cases it is better for the environment, so to make up for it, I try to buy local foods!

That is so true! It is a food trend! What is "hot" right now!

Are you a drunkard? Nobody says that.Of course...healthy people that have BRAINS do.

no i dont want to pay the extra dollars for just fruit and vegetables grown from the ground.