Is it important 2 u 2 only buy USDA organic food?

Question

IT IS to me, and this started ever since I took a class on Organic foods and other organic things when I was a manager for Origins and it totally changed my life. And i want to know if it's important to you too..

Answer 1

It is far more important to me to buy food direct from the farmer/grower than to buy USDA certified organic. I am a grower myself who makes my living growing and selling food directly. i was certified organic for 8 years but felt at the time the USDA would mess up organic certification by ignoring the small farms selling direct. I was correct in my assumption and several others. Industrial organics is better than conventionally raised foods fed a diet of toxic chemicals but local is far better from a conservation POV. Far less petroleum is used in shipping and one is directly supporting farmers when one buys from farmers and not middlemen/retailers. Buying local also profoundly supports your local economy by keeping the money you spent in that economy. When you buy from a local business 75% of the money stays in the local economy. When you buy from Whole Foods, Wal-Mart, etc., 65% of the money leaves the local economy.

There are a lot of local growers like myself who used to be certified organic and still grow organically but can no longer use the term organic in any form legally. So there is a lot of food being sold using terms like chem-free, ecological. etc.. You as the customer have to take the initiative and ask about the farm's growing practices. Also if someone does claim to be organic and has no certificate to back up this claim ask if they once were certified. there are a lot of chemical growers using the term because they think they will not be caught. But there are a lot of us out there who are the real thing but cannot say so legally.

Answer 2

I like the idea of buying organic foods, and have recently started.  Hopefully the less pesticides I put in my body, the healthier I'll be.  

Right now the only organic food I have access to buy are some fruits and veggies, plus a few dairy products.  I do buy organic eggs, but I must admit that the organic milk gets kind of expensive, so I usually buy the regular kind.