Health: Organic Food

Government test results have shown that the following fruits and vegetables contain very high pesticide levels and should be purchased in their organic incarnations as often as possible:

• Apples
• Bell peppers
• Celery
• Cherries
• Imported grapes
• Nectarines
• Peaches
• Pears
• Potatoes
• Red raspberries
• Spinach
• Strawberries

My question is...why the hell should I have to pay so much more to keep things off of my food? Shouldn't it save the farmers money not to have to use pesticides on my food??? Is the money that the would save incomparable to the amount that they would have to pay to have more people working to keep our food fresh, healthy, harvested, and distributed to consumers that much more that it is cheaper and easier to fill our food with pesticides and hope for the best? Do the government, the farmers organizations, or the companies themselves have an ethical responsibility to provide us with "best practice" products? I can't believe that this is the best product that they can produce and I also think that if people do have to pay upfront extra money to put better "fuel" into their bodies that they should get something back from the government or even more appropriately our healthcare insurance providers for the long term problems that we are avoiding.

As savvy consumers, if we are trying to be as healthy as possible, we need to be aware of the labeling (as apparently there are varying levels of organic products available):

100% Organic: No synthetic ingredients.

Organic: 95% of the ingredients are organic; the other 5% are synthetic.

Made with Organic Ingredients: 70% of the ingredients are organic.

Free-Range: For a farmer to label their product as free-range, they need to provide outdoor access for "an undetermined period each day." That leaves a lot of room for interpretation so purchase with caution (and not just because it is "free-range".)