Does Organic Mean Healthier and Is It Worth the Money?

Reader’s Digest
Michael Downey

Excerpt…

Like a growing number of Canadians, Jennifer Kavur shops regularly for organic groceries. She buys organic tomatoes, lettuce, apples and many other items. And the 31-year-old Toronto editor pays dearly for them: For example, last fall she paid $2.99 for a head of cauliflower in the organic section of her local grocery store, while, a few metres away, the conventionally grown version was priced at just 99 cents a head. Her reasoning for spending more? “It’s better for you, healthier. You don’t get all those pesticides.”

Organic food is still a niche market, representing just over two percent of all food sold, and, according to Consumer Reports, costs consumers on average about 50 percent more than conventionally grown foods. But organic food is more visible today than ever before, with most large supermarket chains in Canada now offering dedicated organic sections. A reason for its growing popularity? People think it’s better for them. A 2005 survey by the large American chain Whole Foods Market showed 53 percent of organic-food consumers think it is healthier, in part because they believe it’s pesticide-free. Most Canadians who buy organic, according to a 2005 survey by ACNielsen, say they do so because it’s healthier than conventionally grown food.

But are they right?

Read the full article here.

Beginning about mid-March, and for many years, this article will also be available online in the “Archives” section of the website at www.readersdigest.ca. On the site, editors have posted a letter from each of two Canadian experts, one “pro” and one “con” organic food and organic farming.

To read The Debate (a letter pro & a letter con)