If there's any dietary wisdom, it's that you do a body good by eating plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Certainly, the experts agree with both the American Heart Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's "MyPlate" program recommending that we fill half our plate each day with plant-based foods.
Thanks to their reputation for being more nutritious, as well as better for the environment, foods labeled "organic" are increasingly the choice. According to the Organic Trade Association, the leading voice for organic trade in the U.S., sales of such food products grew from an estimated $26.9 billion in 2010 to more than $63 billion in 2021. Perhaps not surprisingly, fresh fruits and vegetables accounted for the largest portion of all organic food sales in 2021, followed by eggs and dairy, beverages, packaged foods, bread/grains, snack foods and condiments, and meat/fish/poultry.
Also no surprise: Upscale and millennial/Gen Z consumers are more apt to buy organic than older shoppers. And the vast majority is purchased at conventional grocery stores, though sales also happen at farmers markets and through community-supported agriculture shares.
Eighty-two percent of U.S. households reported organic purchases in 2016. "And we expect that healthy trend to just keep getting stronger," said OTA executive director and CEO Laura Batcha.
At Giant Eagle, one of the biggest sellers in the growing organic category is the chain's salad blends and premade salads, says director of sustainability Cara Mercil. "But we certainly sell a lot of apples and oranges, and there's tons of growth in berries right now." Five years ago, an organic strawberry would have been rare in the produce aisle; now it's consistent across all locations.
The trend extends to packaging, with customers looking for products that come in biodegradable or fully recycled containers, Mercil says, "which is something that didn't exist even three or four years ago."
Yet with so many cashing in on America's growing taste for healthier foods — some fraudulently — do you really know what you're buying when you reach for something with the USDA Organic Seal? And does it actually make a difference to your health?
A new rule from the U.S. Department of Agriculture aims to help answer the first question.
In effect as of March 20, the Strengthening Organic Enforcement rule will boost oversight and enforcement of products labeled organic, both domestically and imported. The new provisions will also affect USDA-accredited agents and inspectors in an effort to give consumers more confidence that the products they're buying are actually organic.
As for the second question, there's no easy answer, says registered dietitian Miriam Seidel, who is also an associate professor of nutrition at Chatham University.
Figuring out labels is the easy part, because the USDA has four distinct labeling categories for organic products: 100% organic, organic, "made with" organic ingredients, and specific organic ingredients.
"If it says 100% organic on a package of food, that means everything inside the package was organically grown, except for salt and water, which are considered natural," she says. The label also must include the name of the certifying agent.
If it just says "organic," that means 95% of the ingredients are certified organic, and that 5% may contain nonorganic content, "and you have to look in the nutritional info on the label" to determine what.
Products that wear a "made with" label only have to contain 70% organically produced ingredients, Seidel continues — say, the apples or tomatoes and basil in a sauce, "but the other stuff would not be." They would, however, have to be produced without genetic engineering.
And if it contains less than 70%? It cannot display the USDA Organic Seal or use the word "organic."
Is it worth it?
What's not so easy to determine, says Seidel, is whether paying the premium price for organic is worth it.
According to Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group, more than 70% of nonorganic fresh produce sold in the U.S. contains residues of potentially harmful pesticides. Certainly buying organic is a win for the farm workers and laborers who otherwise would be applying the pesticides and herbicides that are a hallmark of conventional farming, putting them at risk for cancers and birth defects. It's also kinder to the planet.
The EPA has looked carefully at most of the chemicals used in conventional agriculture, "and they will tell you there is no residue that is in such a great amount that it's harmful to our bodies," says Seidel. For instance, while strawberries can be treated with as many as 17 different pesticides during growing, none of the residues found on the fruit exceeded the established tolerance, according to the USDA's Pesticide Data Program.
Others beg to differ.
"Groups like the [nonprofit] National Resources Defense Council say, OK, the EPA is looking at one particular ingredient and doing all these different tests and extrapolating that to humans," says Seidel. But as strawberries demonstrate, foods often are treated with at least two and often several different pesticides. "And what scientists are not good at is understanding the synergistic effects."
Sure, maybe one is below what the EPA considers dangerous. "But what about when you put them together?" Seidel says. And because those studies haven't been done, no one can say for sure what counts as the "bad stuff."
Washing helps to remove bacteria and wax, "but you cannot rinse off pesticides," she notes. "It is inside the tissue of the food."
Foods that come in a "case" that you can peel off and don't have leaves or rind you eat, like cantaloupe, pineapple or corn, are OK because the pesticides can't get inside, says Seidel. And while it's helpful to peel something like a fruit, doing so also gets rid of nutrients.
So what's a thoughtful consumer to do?
For the past couple decades, the Environmental Working Group has released its annual "Dirty Dozen list" to warn shoppers against produce with the most pesticide residue. Strawberries head the 2022 list, followed by spinach; kale, collard and mustard greens; nectarines; apples; grapes; bell peppers and hot peppers; cherries; peaches; pears; celery; and tomatoes.
Suddenly feeling stressed? EWG counters their list of unsafe foods with the "Clean 15," a checklist of fruits and veggies that had the lowest concentrations of pesticide residues. This year, avocados and sweet corn took top honors, and you also can feel good about eating pineapple, onions, papaya, sweet peas (frozen), asparagus, honeydew melon, kiwi, cabbage, mushrooms, cantaloupe, mangoes, watermelon and sweet potatoes.
Cost of doing business
If buying organic makes for more healthful eating, why are we not filling our shopping carts and reusable bags with it every time we shop?
For most, it boils down to economics. Because it costs a lot more to produce fruits, vegetables and grains without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, organic products typically receive a price premium over nonorganic products.
At Whole Foods, for instance, "regular" broccoli costs $1.99 per pound while organic baby broccoli is $3.99. At Giant Eagle, organic Honeycrisp apples run $3.49 per pound compared to $2.99 for conventionally farmed apples, and you'll pay twice as much for organic strawberries, currently $4.99 per pound versus $2.49 per pound for regular.
Adding to an organic farmer's cost of doing business: the tremendous amount of paperwork involved. Certified organic farmers are required to keep detailed records of all their seeds and annual transplants, plus fertilizers, pest control materials, compost and other soil additions. They must also keep careful track of what they plant, when they planted it and where in the field, in a written format organic inspectors can easily understand.
Additionally, they have to show that the farm has not used any prohibited substances in the last three years.
"It's definitely not easy," says Chris Brittenburg, co-owner of Who Cooks For You Farm in New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which is in its fourth season of being certified organic. If there's spray drift from an adjoining farm, for instance, the entire field is ruined.
"But for us," he says, "it's tried and true. That's how our great-great-grandparents grew."
A more manageable option for farmers and consumers who find the cost of USDA's program prohibitive is to go "certified naturally grown." The CNG seal means the farmers follow all the same principles as organic — they must commit to not using synthetic herbicides, pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics, hormones or genetically modified organisms — only with different verification. It uses a peer-review system, where the farmer is inspected by another farmer, extension agent or three of the farm's customers.
Brittenburg farmed under CNG standards for 11 years before transitioning to certified organic. Both methods, he says, have helped him and co-owner Aeros Lillstrom better understand their farm because they're forced to look at a lot of details. Having a list of seeds they can pick through, for instance, has helped make them more efficient.
Most farmers who are new, he says, are more likely to be certified than longtime farmers because they haven't been farming a certain way for generations and therefore are more open to a new way of doing things.
"Nobody wants to be buddy-buddy with the government because they look for problems," he says. "But food should be scrutinized."
Strengthening Organic Enforcement, he adds, will make things easier for customers because a lot of people throw the word "organic" around loosely.
And if you can only afford it some of the time? Any little effort is good, but both Brittenburg and Seidel agree it's better to eat conventional fruits and vegetables than no vegetables at all. Both also share this same advice for eating more healthily: Get to know your farmers and have regular conversations with them about their methods.
"That's huge," says Brittenburg.
Giant Eagle's Mercil is on the same page. "There's a lot of chatter [about the Dirty Dozen and Clean 15], and those names are catchy and stick with you," she says. But limiting your choices can do more harm than good.
"As a society, we don't eat as many fruits and vegetables as we should, and making choices for fresh products overall is a positive impact," she says.
