Is Organic Farming Produce Worth the Extra Cost at the Counter?

Is the organic farming produce really worth the extra cash at the checkout counter? A regular head of lettuce, pesticides and all, runs about $1.10 to maybe $2.00 around here. Yet check out the organic farming produce and you will find a head of lettuce costs around $2.80 to $3.00. That is a pretty significant price jump considering you are getting less. With less chemical enhancements and less chemically enhanced pesticides and chemically altered plant hormones, you would think that less is more. And for most people, it really is. Why? Because the health risk that goes along with ingesting all of those chemically produced alterations and chemically enhanced growth accelerants can not possibly be healthy for the human body.

There are plenty of scientific facts to help support the average assumption that the more naturally produce is grown the healthier it really is for us. This has become common knowledge and the produce growers have found that their land (by coincidence?) is much healthier as well and can support more product. So what's the catch then? If all of the organic produce is fabulous for you, good for the environment, and is worth the extra coin to bring it home, then what could be the possible down side to all this natural growing?

Marketing. Marketing is going to be the one huge killer of organic farming produce. While "organic" really refers to mostly organic and 100% organic refers to almost completely organic, there are plenty of produce foods that fall under the organic category that are just grown that way, but the companies who harvest them are certainly not above placing the words "organic" on he label and then jacking up the price despite the fact that not one single thing with the exception of the creation of a new label was done to create an organic product. Many food items such as nuts are really basically organic, since they only have to meet the 75% organic criteria in order to carry the label, most packaged and free bin nuts have always been "organic." Since nothing was done to create this organic state, why is it that the company justified charging two to three times the going rate?

Organic farming produce is fabulous family food. Anyone can feel good about a meal when it has been prepared with an extra dash of love and some organic produce. Knowing that the food you are serving isn't heavily laden in any type of chemical enhancement takes away just one more avenue of worry. For most of us who are learning to become savvy shoppers, organic farming produce is actually completely worth the extra cost at the checkout counter.

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Poll: Most Chicago-area residents living 'greener'

From his bucolic farm on the south side of Naperville, Steve Tiwald can see the imprint of the country's "green movement" on the faces of eager patrons as they arrive each week to collect their boxes of tomatoes, spinach and summer squash. When Tiwald launched his community garden on less than 2 acres in the western suburb in 2002, he hoped to spread awareness about the importance of local ...

Most Chicago-area residents living 'greener'

Tribune/WGN poll: 77 percent said they made changes to their daily routines to be more 'environmentally conscious' From his bucolic farm on the south side of Naperville, Steve Tiwald can see the imprint of the country's "green movement" on the faces of eager patrons as they arrive each week to collect their boxes of tomatoes, spinach and summer squash.