I think fresh, fragrant, and flavorful are telltale signs that produce is worth the purchase. I was 100% organic for more than a year, and I have never once encountered conventional produce that was as tender, as ripe, or as flavorful. *VERY RARELY* something conventional would come through that caught my nose (mangoes in season).

People who say there is no difference are clearly pallate-damaged. I was, too, when I first went raw. I thought it was BS to spend $5 on a box of strawberries. I mean, a few months of raw food vegetable-worship cannot undo decades of singeing the skin of my tongue with microwaved preservatives and 4000mg of iodized table salt daily. But slowly, my senses sharpened. The mucus drained from my sinuses and my tastebuds regenerated.

Now I find myself quite disgusted with sub-par, bland or brown fruit that never ripens. If organic fruit falls into this category--which, sometimes it does, especially if it's way too old--I obviously won't buy it. But organic is very generally the cat's meow, in my experience.

I am currently HEARTBROKEN because I used to live somewhere with a cornucopia of organic produce at bargain basement prices... Now, I moved, and I am actually staying for free with family because the cost of living is SO high that I literally could not afford rent... and my grocery bill is 4x what it used to be, eating conventional.

But I'm battling hard to make it work. Better job. Better networking. Farmers' markets coming up in the spring. Living in a better place.

Since I stopped eating 100% organic, I find myself having to eat more, and suffer intermittent and inexplicable weird rashes. My perfect complexion is gone. It has been a serious challenge to my positivity. Those 8-1-1 days are over.

I have found it impossible to thrive on 8-1-1 if I do not have smashing, top quality produce.

I went all summer this year without watermelon because I literally could not find ONE SINGLE WATERMELON with seeds. (Bye-bye, mono melon cleanse )

This summer will be better. >8) Land is so vital. If you have it, don't waste it! Grow watermelons and sell them to me!

I agree. I have been to a non organic vegetable farm and seen their spraying practices. Its horrifying...our earth is taking a beating. Only imagine what effect those chemicals have on our bodies.
Organic 100% all the way, everyday!

This is why I get so scared when I think about all that GMO pollen flying around contaminating all the natural food on the planet. Sigh. At least there's wild food, and weeds that nobody will ever bother to create frankenversions of.