To eat organic or not?

If you can afford it, eat organically! The amount of pesticides, etc that are put on food and grown into food is alarmingly high. Strawberries are grown with a ton of bad things, and the residue is in your food. Yuck.

here are two articles on a dozen or so fruits/veggies you should eat organic if at all possible.
http://www.eatingwell.com/food_news_origins/organic_natural/dirty_dozen_plus_14_foods_you_should_buy_organic
http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/dirty-dozen-foods#slide-1

Organic food also supports a lot of family-owned farms who have to work really hard to farm organically and get their food labelled as organic.

Also I wonder if we all started buying local and/or organic, if the prices might start coming down.

That's not how economics works. Higher demand results in higher prices.

Organic stuff is more expensive than regular because it spoils faster. This causes a reduction in supply, which is the other way prices go up. They have to charge more for each item that DID survive to the store.

Higher demand --> higher output/production = lower prices...

Also I wonder if we all started buying local and/or organic, if the prices might start coming down.

That's not how economics works. Higher demand results in higher prices.

Organic stuff is more expensive than regular because it spoils faster. This causes a reduction in supply, which is the other way prices go up. They have to charge more for each item that DID survive to the store.

sorry, but that is wrong. maybe organic produce spoils faster, but go compare the 'sell by' date on organic milk versus regular milk. Organic milk keeps for up to 3 weeks longer, at least in my experience in buying milk.

Also, if 'regular' foods 'last longer' what kind of preservatives and/or chemicals are they spraying or treating the produce with to make those items last longer? What are those preservatives or chemicals going to do to me?

Just saw the movie 'FoodMatters' and they said, it can take 30 years to fully see the side effects of what pesticides and chemicals do to humans. Think about it, they take a 'study' of a few thousand people, and then present the results of the side effects on just those few hundred people. Then when they get the green light, release the product to MILLIONS of people.

Just because something seems to be 'fine' for a few hundred people does NOT mean it is safe for 'everybody'. As it has been said, everybody is different, everybody reacts differently to different things. Vioxx anybody?

Can you afford it? Do you like it?

Eat accordingly.