By "organic," I mean food that has been grown sustainably without synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers (no Miracle-Gro!) in a fashion designed to do little or no damage to the natural environment. Preferably, it's also grown locally to the people who consume it so as to reduce the emissions footprint as much as possible.

And for you chemistry geeks, by "organic," I do not mean "contains carbon."

I would if it werent so expensive.

example:
reg bananas .49 cents a pound
organic bananas .89 cents a pound



edited due to retard spelling mistake

I don't go out of my way to get it. And yes, all food that is or once was alive is organic so how did this stuff become labeled as such?

I've noticed out here in So. Cal., Von's carries a brand called, Organics and the prices are comparible with their counterparts.

Trader Joe's has a decent selection of organic foods and the prices are really good.

No. I don't care if my food's "organic" or not.

No and no i dont eat organic food, havent even thought about buying it neither!

I've had organic before, but only 'cus other people bought and served it, or 'cus I got it as a gift from someone who's into it.

I did have a little vegetable patch at home and we didn't use pesticides so I guess it was organic, but I don't give much thought to it, I know that when I am buying tomatos the less "toxic" ones are the ugly ones, but I'll still buy the pretty, plump ones.

Always organic, except when eating out. (Some restaurants do use organic food,
but I suspect that the majority use non-organic to cut costs.)

Organic food here is expensive so I usually just go to the farmers market, at least the fruit and veggies are vine ripe

We try and eat 100% organic although there are a few exceptions. We don't eat out at chain restaurants and choose to eat at local restaurants that are part of an organic food network. We grow our own veg, buy others from local markets, trade with neighbors, and buy our meat and eggs from a great farm just 5 miles away. I'd rather spend money on quality food than eat crap supermarkets sell. (Though I would give my right arm for a local Trader Joe's). The meat is particularly low quality around here and I feel bad for the people that simply can't afford to buy organic. Cost differs depending on what you buy. A t-bone from the supermarket is around $7/lb, and we pay $9/lb for organic beefalo (beef/buffalo). Reg bananas are 69c/lb and 79c for organic. Crap eggs are I don't know how cheap $1.50 dozen? and we pay $3 a dozen. I would never buy caged hen eggs under any circumstances.

too expensive. But yeah, if I could only eat food without pesticides, hormones added, all that crap I would. But only if I didn't have to make any effort to do so (like not eatting in certain restaurants because they don't have org. food) or spend too much money on it.
I can't buy fresh food everyday. They have to last and it's kind of hard to have food that don't expire or get bad fast if they don't have preservatives and all that crap.
I guess the only way we could really eat all ''organic'' would be if we went back to 1807.

I do my best to eat all organic foods...new york is a great city to live in if you are interested in doing so...if i go out to eat during my lunch break, most of the time i go to one of the organic delis that are just a few blocks away...we also have lots of organic supermarkets and food coops...if i cant afford to buy all organic then i do my best (pick and choose which items i can buy at the regular supermarket), i will never drink hormone milk, that just grosses me out...

yup, we do organic!

If I could do all my grocery shopping at Whole Paycheck (Whole Foods) I would. They have some amazing things there. The produce and the meat is always so beautiful.

Because words can some times have different meanings depending on context? Anything with a carbon bond counts as organic in chemistry.... but who cares?

I'm sort of hit or miss with organic. Quite a lot of it isn't in my budget, but the farmer's market is usually reasonably affordable and TJ's is pretty good.

I'd love to eat more naturally... but alas DH insists we can't afford it and he won't let me! The closest I get is trying to buy bread with no junky additives in it, just wheat, yeast, and water usually... that costs a bit more but I don't eat a lot of it so I figure it's worth it! I'd love to buy the free-range organic eggs but we eat a lot of them so I close my eyes and eat the el cheapo ones...

I probably have it a couple times a month. But I am doubtful to whether just because things say organic means it really is, sometimes it's hype. Once in awhile if I have to buy something and if the price happens to be low I'll try organic instead. But we don't really want to spend the money to buy organic everything.

I have several chemical sensitivities, so most of the food I buy is organic so I don't get the chemicals from the pesticides. I also have to be careful or artificial flavorings and colorings and preservatives.

link

Oh if only they weren't so expensive...I organic foods.

Right now, no we don't deliberately go out and buy organic but we plan to grow our own veggies once we get moved onto our property, along with an herb garden. When I have the time I make my own bread from freshly ground flour...no preservatives but then it doesn't last long enough to go bad. We're also going to be looking for a source of hormone free beef. I have a friend who raises free range chickens and the eggs are yummy! When she does give them chicken feed, it's hormone free. The chickens aren't huge but then they're the size nature intended, not some mutant sized chicken.

I sometimes buy the organic bananas at the store b/c they look better than the regular ones, but I that is the only organic stuff I buy.

Why does organic food cost more?

• There is mounting evidence that if all the indirect costs of conventional food production were factored into the price of food, organic foods would cost the same, or more likely be cheaper than conventional food.

• The cost of organic food is higher than that of conventional food because the organic price tag more closely reflects the true cost of growing the food: substituting labor and intensive management for chemicals, the health and environmental costs of which are borne by society.

• These costs include cleanup of polluted water and remediation of pesticide contamination.

• The intensive management and labor used in organic production are frequently (though not always) more expensive than the chemicals routinely used on conventional farms.

• Organic growers, for the most part, do not receive the same level of governmental support in the form of farm subsidies and research that other farmers receive. The prices of organic products, therefore, more directly reflect the actual costs of production. As production capacity and demand for organic products increases, organic growers and processors will be able to take advantage of economies of scale, which may result in lower prices.

http://www.downtoearth.org/articles/organic_facts.htm

Organic food is overrated, IMO.

After reading 'The Omnivore's Dilemma', I'm more skeptical about the 'organic' label.

Unless it's celery.

I haven't read the book, but out of curiousity, what about the book specifically makes you more skeptical? And what about celery?

I know perfectly well that the "organic" label isn't perfect and that there are currently dozens of work-arounds being employed to have the word "organic" in the title or the USDA stamp on the product and it not being truly organic in the sense that the organic movement intends. For example, Aurora was marketing milk for years as organic when it frequently came from cows raised on feedlots with no access to pasturage and no freedom to move. While there were no pesticides in the cows' food and no hormones in the cows, the circumstances are still against the spirit of the organic movement. So, while I'm not skeptical per se, I do pay attention to what is and what is not truly organic by keeping up on the news stories and such and avoid things that aren't truly organic when possible.

I have the same problems as you, Jenn, so I do organic also. I have such scary allergic reactions to some chemicals that I read every single ingredient on everything I buy. It's definitely been a challenge trying to find products that I can eat here.

If I have a choice and can get it at a reasonable price, I prefer organic over regular stuff any day.
We have some veggies in the garden and don't buy much during summer anyway.

I don't take it to the extreme, though, I saw organic milk in the store the other day, which was about 60% more expensive than the regular milk... I didn't buy that, I have to admit.

I can't remember specific examples now - I would reccomend reading the book (it is excellent). But the gist of it was that if one aspect of the farming was organic, then the label was applied - not dissimilar to the example you gave, actually.

Regarding the celery - I was on a quest to add the word 'celery' into every post I made that day. What can I say. It helps my day go quicker.

Well my husband is vegetarian so we buy a lot of soy food therefore we often go organic because that's usually the kind of soy that is non GMO.
We also try to get organic milk and eggs (or at least cage free and local), same for the fruits and veggies we go for local or organic. I feel better knowing that there is less pesticide on my food and less hormones as well.

Now I know there are some things for which it doesn't really matters: Bananas are one. They have such a thick peel that pesticide actually don't affect the fruit itself (or so I heard). We also don't bother getting organic cheese because it's hard to find and gets really expensive and I like cheese too much.

But on average we choose to spend a bigger part of our income into food because to us it's important to eat things we feel good about. I don't want to be scared about the food I eat. We still don't know the possible results of GMO on the human body and I don't intend to be a guinea pig for it, and as for hormones (not to mention all the antiobiotics) we already know they are not a good thing for us.
I barely eat meat, but if I was to buy some I would rather go organic for the same reasons.

Milk is about the only thing I buy organic regularly.

I am an organic girl. I have an organic supermarket just around the corner. It is more expensive, but I never look at prices anyway and just buy what I like, so it doesn't really matter.

I used to be a Pescatarian, but got hooked on meat again. I eat meat every once in a while and always go for organic.