I agree that the organic label is overrated and probably a rip-off. The price of organic foods is not justifiable.

Lettuce is lettuce. It doesn't take anymore labor or handling to grow one with pesticides and fertilizer than one without. I have yet to hear of anyone's health being impaired by eating veggies bought at Food4Less rather than an organic market.

As you pointed out with the peanut butter, the organic food is as vulnurable to disease as any other product.

As an alumn of UCD with a BS in Managerial Econ and BS, I always wondered why people spent the extra money to buy something that is "organic".  Coming from a farming community such as Bakersfield, I always that the label somewhat gimmicky and appealing to the yuppie crowd.  The vegetables, poultry and livestock I ate growing up were obviously organic, but I know we didn't pay four times as much as the average person for our horse meat and burrowing owl eggs.

Organic food is one of those fads that would make my grandmother smile and shake her head.  To her, "organic" would fall into the category of bottled water - why pay more for the same three atoms when they come out of a tap for free?  I'll go a step further, why bother to turn on the tap when you can simply slurp it out of the gutter?

I guess organic food suits the mindset of people who fall for it - along with $5 coffees and $20 steaks.  My kit fox steak would have to taste a heck of a lot better for me to justify paying 400% more for it - it just ain't gonna happen.  Well, the wannabe yuppies can spend their extra money on a label and I'll continue sipping my Folgers, drinking my chlorinated tap water and eating my roadkill sandwich - at least I don't have to convince myself that what I'm eating tastes better than the average Joe.  Oh no, I'm way past that point!

You can fertilize a garden with your own poop and  call it organic (I had neighbors that actually did this).

I work in an industry where I deal with farmers everyday and one of my clients who farms "organic" told me that they don't really do anything different to the produce.  He said it is all a marketing gimmick.

You can not go by labels to produce good food,good nutrition or good choices.

I also know some farmers~ as in anything there are the good and the bad.The FDA,due to budget cuts,can barely keep "normal" food safe or certified.

Many years ago I went to *famous name* fertilizer production site:one hopper,many different bags.

Do diligent research,practice sustainable methods~ but the only sure way to know if it is "organic" is to do it yourself. My backyard has not seen a herbicide or pesticide in 30+ years. I use compost either from friends or what I make myself.

You do what you can and then you Bar-B-Que some tri-tip.

Read up on Monsanto here:  www.sourcewatch.org/index.php

I buy organic pet food, but not organic food for me. The pet food came more out of necessity though. I've got a cat with food allergies and normal pet food is too full of junk for him to stomach. The "all natural" and organic lines of pet food tend to have limited ingredients, so I've been able to find several varieties that don't have the ingredients that trigger his food allergies. And there's definately a premium for this with pet food, but in my case it's either pay for organic or start cooking dinner for the cats (which also wouldn't be cheap).

Organic, by the classic definition, means carbon based, or composed of hydrocarbon compounds.

Plants would die quickly if the soil contained 100% organic compounds, and nothing else.

Plants are the factories that take non organic minerals from the soil, and combine them with CO2 from the air to create organic compounds.

Organic fertilizers feed plants because the soil bacteria feed on the organic compounds, and break them down to inorganic compounds that the plants can use to survive.

They should just call the products pesticide free, or perhaps all natural.

Still, I'll probably stick to the $4 organic greens I usually buy. I started purchasing them after reading that some foods retain more pesticides than others, lettuce being one of them. Plus, the quality of the organic lettuce is far superior to the store's other options.

Growing lettuce is really easy. I grow it in a couple of large containers. One plastic 55 gallon drum cut in half.

Place the containers in a semi shaded area so the summer sun won’t burn up the plants. You can drag the containers to more shaded areas if the plants get too much sun in mid summer.

You only need 4 to 6 plants max. When you want some greens, just pick off some of the outer leaves, don’t pull up the whole plant.

New leaves grow like magic, and you can eat off of the same plants for months.

It’s almost free!

I find the Farmers Market to be the best place to purchase locally-grown, pesticide free produce (if you know which vendors to go to) as well as truly cage-free, organic eggs. I simply cannot support the battery-cage laying hen industry, even if it means I'm spending more on an "honest" dozen eggs. 

I'm far more concerned about purchasing locally-grown and humanely raised food than I am about whether or not it has a bright shiny "organic" sticker on it.

Is organic worth the cost? No, but...If you can afford it, knock yourself out.

It is generally true that locally-grown produce will be fresher and of higher quality, regardless of production systems, because it can stay in the field until ready for harvest, and doesn't have to be shipped as far.

In terms of general nutrition and health benefits, there's essentially no difference. Salmonella is a naturally occurring toxin, you know? So, just 'cause it's "natural" doesn't necessarily equate to something inherently better.