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 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.

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.

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 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 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?

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

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.

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

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.

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.

What would you rather have organic food for more money or non organic and some spare change to buy other other stuff!

Yes, it's better for you and I feel healthier when I eat it... It doesn't matter about the money.. organic living will make you live longer.

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