My dad is retired from his 9 to 5 job and now grows vegetables and some fruit to sell at the local farmers market. He will do things like spreading newspapers and pine straw around his tomatoes to keep down the weeds- thus limiting his need for herbicides. By the next year he just plows that stuff into the ground. It becomes part of the soil. He also practices crop rotation to stop the spread of some species specific diseases as well as to help the preserve the soil.  He will also use ash as fertilizer- of course I am not sure if the modern organic types will do that because of the "global warming" associated with burning brush to make ash.

Be he is not a teetotaler on the use of "chemicals." He will spray for fungus and insects also and will spread industrial fertilizer.

Someone who sprays "chemicals" too much, too often, is like someone who goes to the doctor and demands meds for every little sniffle. 

But someone who absolutely refuses to use any modern plant treatments is like someone who refuses to treat diseases (fungus)and parasitic infections (bugs) with modern medicine.

Organic produce isn’t just healthy and better for the environment, it tastes better, too, according to Charles Benbrook, chief scientist for The Organic Center.

Oh, sure it does. And I'll bet that Charles Benbrook insists that nonfat, frozen yogurt, tastes just like regular ice cream.

The organic food fad is similar to the anti-immunization crowd.  Both groups have either forgotten, or most likely, never lived in a time when the food was at the mercy of pests and spoilage before modern farming or the devastation and fear from a variety of diseases prior to immunizations.

People worked hard to improve farming and public health for a reason.  Those chemicals aren't used in farming or injected into our bodies willynilly.  Bad things happened prior to these improvements.  Very bad things. 

I have doubt that our produce bounty can be maintained by returning to "organic" farming.  We would need to utilize a great deal more land, resources (it takes water to make the stuff folks) and be significantly more costly.  Have these idiots only shopped in a Wild Oats without looking at the prices in the regular grocery stores?

Why are some people hellbent on returning to the 19th century?  It was NOT an easier life, folks.  Simpler but more deadly from a health point of view.

Newsweek implores us to buy "organic" food, when what they should be encouraging is that Americans eat fruits and vegetables of any kind.  The assumption is that the average Americans' diet is balanced with fresh fruits and vegetables already.  Evidence just doesn't hold that to be true.   

But, who reads Newsweek anyway? When you get their rag the stuff in it is already at least a week old. And, like this article, it is just "organic!"

I find, much to my amusement and especially when they first started selling it, that both the political left and the political right didn't exactly know how to deal with the idea of WalMart selling organic produce. As a libertarian, I got the sense of somewhat-confused minds on the left & right respectively, muttering to themselves either: "well, it's organic, but it's WalMart!" or "well, it's WalMart, but it's organic!"
JMR

"Sarah Bratnober, communications director at the Organic Valley Family
of Farms, advises following the 80/20 rule—80 percent of the benefits
come from 20 percent of the purchases. Think about what your family
eats the most of, then go from there."

Okay, first of all, you got organic food purchasing advice from the "communications director at the Organic Valley Family of Farms"? What? The president of "Buy Organic or Die" wasn't available?

And the advice seems to be completely useless. Buy organic versions of what my family eats most of? How is that supposed to save me money buying organic foods?

Freedom of choice- the more options in the marketplace, the better as long as those making those choices are responsible for their actions.