An apple is an apple?---How likely are you to buy organic foods?

When you do grocery shopping in the supermarket every week, do you specifically look for organic products? For me, the answer is no.

Firstly, organic products are more expensive. According to a report released by the American Consumer Association, on average, organic foods are around 50~100% more expensive than non-organic ones. For example, the price for 1 gallon non-organic milk is $3.78, but the same amount of organic milk will cost you $6.99 in Whole Foods, one of the biggest supermarket chains selling so-called organic healthy foods. You may think: OK, it is only about $3 in difference, so what? In order to illustrate the big difference, let us do the calculation in another way. It is approximately 85% more expensive! These days, the economy is not in good shape, and inflation is getting worse. The public has become more and more sensitive to the price of food, including organic foods. Do we really have the money to cover the extra 85%?

Secondly, it has not been proven that organic food is healthier for us. The main reason people are willing to pay more for organic food is that they are trying to avoid the indirect intake of hormones, pesticides or other potentially harmful chemicals used in conventional farming. More than 20,000 pesticides are registered for use in the United States, according to the Pesticide Action Network. This is a thought-provoking figure. Do you know how much of them have been served on your dinner table? There has been little or no evidence to show that pricier organic food is better for the consumer’s health, although recently one study sponsored by the European Union suggested that organic foods contain more antioxidants and nutrients than non-organic foods. If that is true, our government’s advice, “Eating organic food is no more than a lifestyle choice.”, can no longer be believed. But it is still not clear whether antioxidants actually benefit our health.

Lastly, is food labeled “organic” really produced in an organic way? Probably yes. Not everyone can put the “organic” label on their product. The use of the “organic” label is regulated by a division of the FDA. But there is still a large variation in quality from brand to brand even among organic foods. According to my personal experience, different brands of organic chicken taste quite differently. While I am not trying to say that some of organic chicken is not really organic, there are a lot of factors (besides my cooking) that can influence the taste, such as the type, age, feed and even physical exercise condition of the chicken. Indeed, I noticed that “cage-free” chicken has a better taste.

In summary, if you are considering purchasing organic food but are on a budget for groceries, I suggest that you buy at least organic milk and organic egg. This is because eggs and milk are likely to concentrate artificial chemicals during their production, and are likely to contain high levels of these artificial chemicals.