Where do you guys stand on this debate?

Little of both

My general rule is to try to buy anything where you eat the skin or leaf organic and anything I peel I'm less picky about. So lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower and fruit I try to get organic...carrots, onions and sweet potatoes I'm more budget conscious about. Meats are where I try to buy the best possible quality and that's where I concentrate my grocery budget. It's all about the budget and prioritizing what's most important to you.

There are a lot of reasons to buy organic. Conventionally raised food & Corporate Agriculture have negative effects on the environment: Farming practices that strip topsoil instead of build it, practices such as overusing chemical fertilizers to make up for the sterile conditions, monoculture of crops, huge amounts of pesticides & herbicides, high water use, modified crops to be able to hold-up to shipping - all of it affects flavor, nutrients & health as well.

I buy whatever is best value

I remember a test of organic food a while ago for pesticides, and the finding was that the organic foods tested were only slightly lower in pesticides due to them being grown next to normal fields.

Personally, I buy local fruit and vegetables in season @ farmers markets. (not a very long season here in Minnesota) The rest of the year, I buy what is on sale at the grocery store most of the time.

I am a little dubious of claims of organic. Unless you are growing your own produce and raising your own meat, how can you be sure of what you are getting. Plus, the rain, rains down on all farms from the same sky and the run off from fields that use chemicals etc goes into the same water supply.

Organic costs more, and the benefits are small according to some studies.

Just because a food is grown organically doesn't mean that pesticides are not used; organic pesticides (naturally occurring pesticides) like tobacco and some peppers and oils can still be used. In general, organic foods do have lower levels of pesticides, antibiotics, and synthetic hormones. Washing your produce well can reduce the amount of pesticides present on your food and I recommend it.

No one needs to buy organic anything, but it is one strategy to reduce exposure to certain chemicals.
Personally, I don’t care about buying organic for myself. I do shop at my local farmers market on occasion, not because the produce is organic, but because it actually tastes better, which is important to me.
After my girlfriend and I are married and decide to have kids, we will eat more organic foods during her pregnancy and while she is nursing. Many of the chemicals used in non-organic meat, produce, and dairy bioaccumulate/ are stored in fat. Meats are especially bad, because the animals are given high doses of antibiotics to help them retain water and inflate their mass. There are loads more things done to meat, but I am drawing a blank…I’ve been out of school for a while and I am forgetting. During pregnancy the body utilizes those fat stores and can pass high concentrations of chemicals to the fetus. Also, breast milk is very fatty and can accumulate the same unwanted chemicals for the same reason as above.

Eating locally is not always better for the environment. Think about California’s current troubles with water and the agricultural industry. Farmers in California are so hard up for cheap water that they’ve begun using lower quality water that has a higher concentration of salt. They are essentially salting their fields; if this practice continues eventually nothing will be able to be grown in areas of California. Obviously this is not good for the environment, and could be local for some.
Also, the argument that “Local produce doesn't take as much oil to get from the farm to my mouth, so it has less of an environmental impact” is overly simplistic and ignores things like economies of scale and efficiency. This is not to say I don’t think people shouldn’t support local agricultural, we all should, but the issue of environmental impacts are complicated.

There are not any peer-reviewed articles that I know of that have linked organic foods to better health outcomes for people, so there is that. What has been documented in peer-reviewed studies is lower levels of residual pesticides and other chemicals in people that eat organic foods. @Strawblackcat – there is research available on pubmed that shows widespread pesticide residues in citrus fruits so don’t think the rind is protecting you, certain fungicides used post harvesting can penetrate the rind.

This is a much longer post then I intended to write…I haven’t thought about most of this stuff in this depth for a long time so take what I said with a grain of salt. I do have a graduate degree in environmental health sciences, so I kind of know what I am talking about. I have done modeling of the environmental impacts of different products including foods; I can tell you from first-hand experience judging the environmental impact of a product is complicated and local is not always better in this regard. I also had to take coursework in nutrition of all things, but this coursework has probably influenced my daily life the most. I don’t really keep up with new developments in science, but I do follow the news and think critically about these things. I don’t have an axe to grind on this topic; I work in healthcare. Hopefully this is helpful.

sheermomentum wrote: »

I avoid organic products generally. There is no environmental benefit from special farming practices. There are no special farming practices involved- only different chemicals permitted. Farming practices are something a farmer decides based upon his land, and the needs of the crop. There is no reduction in pesticide usage, just different pesticides. If a particular organic (or conventional) farmer decides to forego pesticides on a crop, then he's going to reduce his yield significantly, which not only drives up the price but increases the wear-and-tear on the soil for basically no reason - its inefficient land use. There's no difference in nutritional value. So the only real reason to buy organic is because of the really great marketing that's been done by groups like the Organic Trade Association. However, if I find a really good packaged product and its organic I won't refuse to buy it just because its "organic."

Very well said. I am pretty much the same way. I grew up on a farm (non-organic) so my take on the issue is a bit different than the mainstream. A lot of the pro-organic hype describes farmers as irresponsible users of chemicals. Not only is that cost prohibitive, but farmers actually do care about keeping their farmland healthy. My family farm has been in the family for several generations and hopefully will remain in the family for several more. With that in mind, the choice of growing methods, including the application of pesticides and fertilizers, is made to keep the land healthy for the future. For example, responsible use of Round-Up ready crops allows us to use no-till growing methods for our soybeans. This helps keep the soil healthy and prevents erosion.

Here's an interesting map showing both the shortage and over-use of nitrogen fertilizer. An article suggested China's over-use stems from a history of famine. Farmers dread the spectre of failed crops, so habitually over-fertilize there.