Is it really worth it to buy organic food?

Daddy Flava is here with what will hopefully be the first of many posts.

I consider myself thrifty about any type of purchase, particularly food. Mommy Flava will sometimes get frustrated with me when we shop together since I can spend an indefinite amount of time comparing products. Even when I think I prefer a food product that is more expensive I still like to back it up with a blind taste test (btw, you can taste the difference between clover and mesquite honey - who knew?).

On the other hand, I also firmly believe in an adage that my grandfather (great-grandpa flava?) told me to live by: never go cheap on your stomach. That philosophy has always seemed right to me, in particular if you also believe that "you are what you eat".

Now, with recent skyrocketing food prices, I have increasingly become torn on whether to spend money on organic foods. Is it really worth spending that extra money on the organic product? To put the dilemma another way: could I be spending (or saving) the extra money I spend on organic foods in another way that would better benefit my family?

Of course, there are no easy answers. In particular, there is no scientifically conclusive evidence that buying organic foods results in better health (or even taste). But I find it hard to ignore what seems to be an increasing amount of circumstantial evidence, like this article on Morning Edition.

There might not be anything wrong with non-organic food but I can't shake the feeling that it's probably worth it to spend the extra money to put a better product on our plates. I hope (and expect) that years from now we might even be able to say that spending money on organic foods is a good investment since it will result in better health and lower medical bills.

But who knows? In the mean time, I'll continue to comparison shop, lean towards buying organic food, and hope I'm not wasting my money. Then again, if I'm buying an organic tomato because it tastes better than a non-organic, at worst it's a tasty mistake.