Discover the difference between organic foods and their traditionally grown counterparts when it comes to nutrition, safety and price.
Safe, healthy and budget-friendly foods are a grocery shopper's dream. Do organic foods make that dream come true? Maybe, but don't bypass foods and products grown using standard farming methods. There are benefits to both.
People choose foods for many reasons.
Factors such as what you like to eat, what you can afford and your values play into your purchases. Also, you may buy certain products based on your current health and the hoped-for future health effects of a certain diet.
A healthy diet can include food grown organically or using typical farming methods, called conventional farming. But if you've wondered about organic food, here's how it compares with conventionally grown food.
Thinking about adding organic foods to your diet? Here are tips for what to buy and how to make organic food less costly.
What is organic food?
Organic foods are items grown under specific conditions or products made with those foods. The organic food label says more about how an item was farmed than about the food itself.
Organic farming is a type of agriculture that avoids the use of some typical farming practices.
Organic farmers can't use some types of soil additives and fertilizers, genetic engineering, or radiation on their products. Organically farmed animals aren't given hormones for growth or antibiotics. Also, these animals get organic feed and must have the option to go outside.