Organic vs Non-Organic

[Flur]

We shop at food co-ops and Whole Foods, and/or we buy from local farms that are well known in our area. The local farms, we're pretty clear on their practices so I have no concerns there, but that's mainly for meats, milk, eggs, etc (I also go for free range over organic, and grass-fed for cattle, and it's harder to certify organic meat when the animals are free range).

I don't actually know of any local produce farms that are certified organic or definitely use organic practices, so I trust my co-ops and Whole Foods to do the checking for me, and even then I look for stuff that's locally grown. I also put locally grown as higher priority than organic, so I'll buy hothouse tomatoes in the winter - organic if I can find them, but conventional if I can't - rather than organic tomatoes grown somewhere else.

Sidenote: If you look for free range eggs or chicken and you want real free range avoid anything that says all-vegetarian-fed, as this means they're not out picking at bugs and stuff.