would you buy more expensive organically grown fruits and vegetables over the cheaper pesticide laden ones?

Answer 1

YES, wherever and whenever they are available, I prefer the organically grown fruits and vegetables. We already know the ill-effects (albeit negligible accdg. to some studies) of pesticides on food, so why risk our health over some nickels and dimes?

Answer 2

I want to...I really do...I know the difference between good and bad...I really want to by the organically grown veggies and fruits...

But when you are raising a family of six, and money is tight, ...need I say more?

I can't afford the health food/whole food store prices, so I try to grow my own - and can/freeze the fruits and veggies for future use.

Buy growing my own, I KNOW what I put on there, and what I used in the soil. Plus, I feel extremely domestic and healthy, knowing that I did it my way...and saved money!

If I can't grow it (or it was a bad season) I try to go and get it from a farmers market. But sometimes, you even have to ask there, as not all farmer market participates are organic growers.

I have more of a delima (as stated in the question) in the winter/spring months...especially after my own personal stores have been depleted. If it is an item that I only need a couple of (mushrooms, one tomato, etc) I will bite the bullet and buy the organic. If it is a lot (like potatoes) I have to go with the cheaper stuff (unfortunately).

Answer 3

Apres Vous has the most misleading and flat out incorrect answer I've ever seen. Anyway, as some have hinted on, organic production is not only more costly, it also yields less thereby doubling the end cost. For example, there are almost no viable weed control methods for organic production outside of tillage and hand weeding. Therefor, while the conventional lettuce grower may be able to place a thin band of herbicide on the soil prior to planting that has no effect on the lettuce seedlings but prevents weeds from growing, the organic lettuce producer must plant and then endure the 10:1 or so population of weeds to lettuce that results. Then carefull cultivation of the lettuce seedlings has to happen with mechanical tillage equipment at a very slow pace so the cutting bars can pass very close to the lettuce plants. After the mechanical cultivation, hand weeding crews have to pass through and hoe out the remaining weeds. So, while the convetional farmer might spend $80 or $100/acre on weed control up front, the organic farmer has to spend two or three times that often more than one time up to harvest. And this is only one example. So, go which ever way you will, but the convetional farmer used a simple chemical and an economic cost 1 time, while the organic farmer burned lots of diesel and relied on lots of illegal labor (sorry folks, that's the reality) to accomplish the same thing and in the end, produced and inferior product at a higher cost. Sounds like a system that shouldn't exist, doesn't it (from a pure economic standpoint)? Also, as said, organic does not mean free of pesticides. It only means the pesticides were organically approved. Google "OMRI listed pesticides" for the complete list. Also, when the lettuce gets worms, the conventional farmer will probably use a pesticide specific to worms that does nothing to beneficial insects (not to mention people) but has a residual effect to continue to control worms for a week or so. The organic producer will use an organic pesticide (Bt, look it up) that also kills worms but has no residual effect and must be eaten by the worms to kill them meaning they still make holes in the lettuce before they are killed instead of being killed by contact. Since it has no residual, the organic farmer will have to spray this material EVERY TIME HE HAS WORMS so that in the end, the organic produce will have MORE pesticide used on it than the conventional. To make the arguement more stupid, the Bt material might also be used by the conventional farmer depending on the situation, but he will use a non-organic approved formulation of the SAME material because it will cost less. It's kind of like if actual Tylenol were approved organic, but CVS brand aceteminophin were not. Same drug, different approval. To add one more stupid thing about this arguement, the Bt is an approved organic pesticide and is the exact same thing that GMO corn was designed to produce within the plant (it's a natual toxin from a bacteria. Spraying Bt is spraying the actual bacteria, the corn just makes the same chemical toxic to worms that the bateria produces). So, here we are with all these greenies praising organic foods that are most likely treated with Bt, but if the Bt came from GMO corn, they act like it was an invention of the devil.

Answer 4

This question is loaded! More so than the non-organic foods ever were!!

So, IF I KNEW the expensive ones were really "organically" grown, and were free of all residual chemicals, not just pesticides, and were in fact healthier...fully ripened, good soil, maximum vitamin content, and nothing bad in there, vs stuff that was totally laden and dripping with dangerous chemicals that are undeclared, picked green for easy shipment and artificially ripened with gas, well...

After all the taxes to be put on me, and costs to change my home and car and bicycle and cats to antipollution and new forms of pollutionless heating and cooling and so on...

I will not have the money to buy any fruits, organic or laden. I'd have to eat artificial ones made of artificially flavored and coloured chopped textured sawdust.

However, they way the question was loaded, and the requirement of the politically correct answer...we would eat no fruits, because one would be very bad, and the other is priced too high to more than look at.

"Of two evils, choose neither"

Answer 5

I would like to say that I always purchase organic fruits and veggies. But the truth is, money is a factor, and spending $1.50 on 2 lemons is not something I'm willing to do with the little amount of available money I have as a teenager. But I think organic food (and markets) are awesome. I understand the higher price, I just wish it didn't have to be that way. ha.

Answer 6

It depends for me. I prefer local non-organic over shipped organic any day though...

Although I hate pesticides being used, you are going to get a relatively small amount of exposure due to your diet, especially from fruits and veggies from the US. Really, watch what your neighbor or you are spraying in your yard. That is more likely to give you a higher exposure.

Answer 7

,its the sensible thing to do ,
but the best is to grow things yourself because
Many businesses lie about organically grown food because it gets a much better price ,but is more expensive to produce

the only sure way is to grow vegetables your self
or if you know the farmers and know how they operate.


Near Mexico City they grow vegetable with the black waters from the city,and in the village people wash the potatoes with detergent ,nevertheless half the village had stomach complaints related to contamination ,

Vegetable are absorbant ,and chemical substances are impregnated ,including pesticides and herbicides .

This can result in cancer ,infertility,and w hole range of intestinal comlaints .

ORGANIC FOOD

to grow food really organically you have to put tons of compost and work with much more labor ,and big trucks
it is a lot more work ,but the plants & produce are better ,and the soil becomes what is called sustainable ,it gets better with time and farmers can continue to use the same land for many years

the chinampas of Mexico and the terazes of the incas are agricultural projects that continue to be productive after a thousand years ,this is called sustainability.
and they are agricultures that work with strickly organic methods
.
CHEMICALLY GROWN
when a farmer uses chemicals he only needs a pickup truck becaues the chemicals come in kilos ,not tons like the composts,and he uses much less labor ,so it is much cheaper to produce ,

but the chemicals impregnate the fruits and vegetables people can get very sick.

apart from that ,the soil become poisoned which goes on to contaminate the ground waters which get purified for drinking water but the PH levels in the water rises which affects sexual devellopment in the fetuses of pregnant mothers ,not to speak of skin,eye and stomach complaints ,or have deformed babies if they get to much of it ,

apart from that the fertilizers in the end kill the micro organisms that make the soil and by the end of the day the soil is dead ,and turns into a dessert when the ground waters are overpumped and dry up .

CONCLUSION
so to chemically grow food is not a long term solution and is very bad for the environment ,with far reaching bad effects,on the people as well as on the land itself.

real organically grown food it more expensive ,but it is much healthier and socially responsible ,

THE POSSIBLE CONS
What is the con ,and this is very difficult to check is that a lot of food says it is grown organically and it is not
or it is grown with out chemicals ,but it does not use organics like composts .

100% SAFE VEGETABLES
the only way ,and this we teach now all over the world ,is to grow you own food .
and you would be suprised at how much you can grow in your back yard
even in 10 square meters ,some people even grow a few tomatoes in flower pots in apartments
this may sound crazy ,but if everybody did it it would be a heck opf a lot tomatoes that can come from an apartment building

PERMACULTURE
there is a whole movement that is geared to this small compact type of horticulture for amateurs ,people who have a backyard or an acre ,a hectare ,what ever
it is called Permaculture and here are some leads

Permaculture is a world recognised earth friendly movement but tends to include people that practice the concept and is active in all fields

Permaculture means permanent agriculture
a concept put forward by Bill Mollisson in the 60`s
which is a complete hand book for environmental design.

the Permaculture designers manual by Bill Mollison,which cost about 40 dollars.
and is the best all round book you can get.(tagiari publishing, [e-mail]) Source(s) some other writers that are on the internet are
david Holmgren
Larry Santoyo
Kirk Hanson

Masanobu Fukuaka has written ,
One-Straw Revolution
The Road Back to Nature
The Natural Way of Farming
http://www.context.org/iclib/ic14/fukuok...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masanobu_fu...

Simon Henderson
and Bill Molisson.

a representitive of the concept in USA is
Dan Hemenway at [e-mail]
[e-mail]
http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames....
http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalo...

I am a permaculture consultant in Guerrero in Mexico

http://spaces.msn.com/byderule

Answer 8

I'd spend more for >Locally Grown< organic food.

Spending extra cash to have some "organic" tomatoes shipped across country so you can have a salad partially negates the positive environmental impact of your choice. Ideally, you should grow some of your own "organic" fruits and vegitables, therefore lowering your dollar cost, and the cost to the environment, greatly.

Answer 9

Actually I do - they taste better and have a richer smell, better texture and longer shelf life. My kids love fresh organics and can taste the difference between chemically grown and organic veggies and fruits.

Answer 10

No, I grow my own, and sell them cheaper than the pesticide laden ones.