To Buy Or Not To Buy Organic

Over the past few years, we have seen a new category of food start to appear in the grocery store aisles. The organic food section is a given in most grocery stores, and some grocery stores, like Whole Foods, are completely dedicated to it. When my baby started on solid foods I had a decision to make. I needed to find out if the health benefits of buying organic for my baby outweighed the extra cost. I was raised eating “normal” foods, and I think I turned out okay. Why should I spend extra money to feed my daughter organic foods?

I’ve read multiple articles on organic food and what the seal of 100 percent organic means to the consumer. I’ve located a handful of articles that say harmful pesticides are detectable in the urine of non-organic consumers. I also came across a study from the University of Washington Seattle that found preschoolers fed conventional diets had six times the level of certain pesticides in their urine as those who ate organic foods. Is the level of pesticides and growth hormones enough to affect our health? In some cases yes, and that is scary for a person whose diet consists mostly of fruits and vegetables.

First things first, what is the definition of organic food? According to Wikipedia, organic food is produced according to legally regulated standards. For crops, it means they were grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives. For animals, it means they were reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones. Also, at all levels, organic food is produced without the use of genetically modified organisms.

Since October 2002, producers and handlers of organic foods must be certified by a USDA-accredited certifying agent to sell, label, or represent their products as “100 percent organic.” The National Organic Program is strictly regulated and demands that all farmers producing over 5,000 dollars of organic produce per year be certified.

While the health benefits are evident, even organic advocates say certain fruits and vegetables are probably not worth paying the extra cost. For example, organic bananas might cost around 78 cents a pound, about 30 cents more than regular bananas. Nutritionists agree that the benefit of purchasing organic bananas is almost non-existent due to the fact that the fruit’s skin is not consumed. Other produce such as apples, strawberries and pears contain several times the amount of pesticides as the organic equivalents, and the residue can’t be peeled or washed away. The USDA website states that 98 percent of the peaches tested by the USDA in 2002 showed evidence of at least one pesticide (www.ams.usda.gov/science/pdp).

The USDA website also states that 47 percent of the produce sampled by the USDA in 2002 had detectable pesticide residues, only 16 percent of grains and 15 percent of meat tested did. Most of the residues found in meat, almost always in the fat, were from long-banned chemicals like DDT, which remain in the environment and is not a problem organic farming methods can solve.

Infant reproductive organs are still forming and the brain developing through age 12. Not to mention young livers and immune systems are less able to rid bodies of harmful contaminants. The most important group of organic consumers should be our children and pregnant women.

It’s not certain what the long-term affects of buying organic are because these products have only been on our shelves for a short period of time. However, it does seem that there are definitely benefits to going the organic route for certain products. Perhaps someday the government will hold all food production to a higher “organic” standard and we won’t have to choose.

For more information on organic foods visit http://www.ams.usda.gov/NOP/indexNet.htm

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