If you’ve looked for ways to eat a healthier diet—one that sufficiently fuels your busy lifestyle, ensures proper nutrient intake, and most importantly tastes good—you may have considered eating more organic fruits and vegetables but found them to be a bit pricier than their conventionally grown counterparts.  Are they worth the extra expense?

Most of us are aware that organic produce is not grown with chemical pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers, but that’s not all there is to it.  Sammy Koenigsberg, owner and operator of New Town Farm, an organic farm in Waxhaw, NC, said, “Our bodies throughout our lives are in a continuous exchange with the top few inches of soil, so the soil is very important.  Organic really seeks to build the soil.  Every pinch of soil has about six billion living things in it and they all have a purpose and the purpose all works for our health.  So if we use chemicals to destroy all that life and just prescribe chemicals that we think grow good vegetables—we’re missing out on a lot of what is in the natural systems and what it has to offer us.” 

The chemicals used in conventional farming can end up degrading the soil, making it dependent upon those chemicals to remain productive.  Organic farming uses processes like composting and cover cropping—planting a crop with the intention of tilling it back into the soil to add nutrients to the soil—to help build up a healthy soil in which to grow produce.  “A healthy soil makes a healthy vegetable, we eat it—we have healthy bodies,” Sammy explained.

You can be sure you’re getting the highest quality produce by following two basic rules:

• Know where your produce is grown.  Talk with the produce manager at your local grocery store or—better yet—get your produce from a local farmer’s market.  Most farmers are more than willing to explain how their produce is grown.
• Look for the USDA Certified Organic label.  For more information, check out the USDA's website.

It’s difficult to say whether organically grown fruits and vegetables contain more nutrients.  According to Ann Henderson, a registered dietitian who counsels people on how to eat properly for total body wellness, “We know from research that conventionally grown produce does tend to have some residue from the chemical pesticides and fertilizers that they use.  As far as the nutrient content, there isn’t a huge body of research to show that the nutrient value of organic produce is all that different from conventionally grown produce.”  

However, it is important to consider the amount of time it takes to get produce from the field to your plate.  The nutrients start to degrade when a fruit or vegetable is picked, so the faster it makes it to your family’s table, the more nutrients it contains.  Most organic farms serve their local communities, which means you’ll generally get a much fresher and more nutritious product when you buy from a local source. 

Sammy encourages consumers to purchase produce from local organic farmers “to support a sustainable local food system and a food system that does not damage our health and our environment; and just for the sheer enjoyment.”  He said, “Food that’s fresh and grown properly tastes a lot better.”