The iconic green symbol. The word “ORGANIC” placed on seemingly identical products. The price differences. The shorter shelf life. Why do people choose organic foods over their conventionally grown counterparts? What’s the difference? And why should I pay more for these products over others?

The Difference

In simple terms, it’s about processing. Organic products are made with more natural, less controlled or artificial treatments to allow the products such as fruits and vegetables to grow in a more environmentally friendly management. Things such as pesticides, insecticides, and chemical fertilizers contain harmful chemicals and toxins that people ingest which can cause illnesses and diseases in the long term. 

The term, ‘organic’,  can be used on other products, not just fruits and vegetables. Organic meats are identified as animals raised by more humane treatments, given regular feed over more processed feed that supports artificial growth, larger grazing areas, and better care and attention.

Organic identifies as products that have not been tampered with artificially or given chemicals to increase growth size or speed. These additives may contain harmful chemicals that could be cancerous or lead to serious health problems.

Organic foods tend to be higher in cost due to sustainability practices and better attention and care. Organic foods may also have lower yields due to the lack of pesticides that prevent bugs from damaging the crops and shorter shelf life due to the lack of preservatives given to the crops to make them more resilient and resistant to natural environmental conditions. Such reasons decrease the amount of produce available while the demand is high, impacting prices to increase.

Why Then?

People may choose organic over conventionally processed foods because of environmental concerns, animal processing concerns, support sustainability, and or looking to improve health or lifestyle. Some people have also noticed that there are slight differences, an aftertaste, that processed foods contain that organic foods lack. 

Sadly, studies have not shown significant differences in nutritional value between conventionally grown over organically grown produce but researchers suspect this could be due to the environmental pollution of the fields and the spread of chemicals and other toxins from influences through the water or wind.

But regardless of the impact of nutritional value, conventionally grown produce has been found to contain the chemicals and toxins contained in pesticides, chemical fertilizers and insecticides that lead to long-term health problems. Choosing organic foods over conventionally grown also impacts other lifestyle aspects as organic foods require more cooking and preparation, reducing fast food consumption, and cooking your own meals allows you to control the fat and salt content, allowing you to create more health-conscious meals that are more nutritious and keeps your body satiated longer.

Choosing organic foods should not be a chore, even just substituting only fruit consumption to organic fruits can bring a difference in quality of taste. Visit your local grocery store today to check out your selection of organic foods!

Vigar, V., Myers, S., Oliver, C., Arellano, J., Robinson, S. & Leifort, C. 2020.  A Systematic Review of Organic Versus Conventional Food Consumption: Is There a Measurable Benefit on Human Health? Nutrients, 12(1) 7. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12010007

Gonzalez, N., Marques, M., Nadal, M., & Domingo, J. L. 2019. Occurrence of environmental pollutants in foodstuffs: A review of organic vs. conventional food. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 125, 370-375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2019.01.021