Organic gardening is pesticide free in my garden. The only chemical I have ever sprayed in my garden is soapy water, and I hardly ever do even that. SInce I cover myself with soapy water all the time I don't consider that a pesticide ever though it can kill pests. Since people are advised to wash their produce before eating it, I think I could claim quite truthfully that my stuff is pesticide free. I have also killed some pests just with water (drowning), but I wouldn't call water a pesticide. "As to organic food being better nutritionally? Well probably not technically for the most part" Amazingly enough organic food has been shown to be better nutritionally. Probably relates to the soil being richer in organic material. Antioxidants and vitamins tested were significantly higher in organically grown produce. Here are two quotes from one article about it, just Google 'organic vitamin antioxidant higher nutrition' and you will find a slew of articles about all the research and analysis. >>The decline in our produce's nutritional value corresponds to the period of increasing industrialization of our farming systems. As we have substituted chemical fertilizers, pesticides and monoculture farming for the natural cycling of nutrients and on-farm biodiversity, we have lessened the nutritional value of our produce. Integrated well-established organic farming systems can counter the decline. >>For example, Virginia Worthington, a clinical nutritionist who earned her doctorate in nutrition at Johns Hopkins, published a review in 2001 of 41 studies comparing the nutritional value of organic and conventional produce. After tallying the data across all the studies, Worthington concluded that organic produce had on average 27 percent more vitamin C, 21.1 percent more iron, 29.3 percent more magnesium and 13.6 percent more phosphorous than conventional produce. I do agree that locally grown is just as important as organics, though. The amount of fuel spent transporting food around the globe is scary. Marcia Here is a link that might be useful: article the quote is from

Thanks for the link; I'll check it out later. How are the free e-journals progressing? Are the editorial standards as vigorous as for the top-flight print journals? Springer also offers a sort of "best of..." service, in my case I chose Crop Science, articles garnered from an array of their journals. Unfortunately, the notification is monthly and fewer than a dozen articles are posted to me with each email. I had better response from BioMedNet and other similar sites. At one point I received email notifications of a half dozen journals from Springer and could access abstracts. Too often abstracts were not available so I could only access the first line or two of the papers at best. Not very useful or enlightening.

I'm all over the map. I actually a weenie who enjoys reading up on food production methods, chemicals, etc. Natural resource managment is my field, and I teach a lot about various methods of growing things. Also thru that process I have developed local connections with people who farm. There's a whole controversy about the USDA label "organic" which many small growers feel is way to restrictive, and also way to bureaucratic and skewed in favor of large, commercial producers. I'm much more concerned about knowing where my food comes from, where the farms are and who the producers are than some type of label. I buy local or regional produce when I can. Most stuff I cannot afford to buy organic OR conventional out of season. For fruit, other than in-season, I mostly only eat apples and bananas which is all I can afford. I eat those conventional, and always peel apples. I can't afford many of the high pesticide veggies anyway. I buy organic celery, my one concession. I buy conventional potatoes and always peel. I can no longer eat green peppers so occasionally splurge on a conventional red pepper, which I can barely afford anyway so I don't buy organic. I'm lucky to have a great U-Pick place up the road for peaches, cherries, strawberries and some other fruits. I buy tomatoes in bulk from a produce farm and can for winter use. Also still lots of great farms in the area so local stores often carry regional produce. Meat is mostly a non issue for me. I eat so little of it. I can't really afford most fish, I buy it rarely but then follow the Monterey Bay Aquarium's recommendations. Excellent Web site they have on the subject. Don't get me started on what's happening to the oceans, it is such a tragedy. I've started buying the canned tuna and canned salmon in the health food store that is sustainably harvested. Since I use both the salmon and tuna as more of a condiment, even though they are twice the price of conventional, it isn't cost prohibitive for those small cans. I buy canned Pacific salmon for salmon patties. I eat freshwater fish from Michigan when I go every year. They have lots of contaminants, but I don't eat the fish that often. People say, "Aren't you worried about eating Lake Michigan fish?" and I say, "Well, that's why I have devoted my life to conservation!! As goes my Lake, so go I." If I was a meat eater, I would try to develop relationships with local producers. I know a farmer who produces local organic meat if I was so inclinded. There are lots of cooperatives here where you can get organics, if you can afford it. Cheese, milk, eggs, produce, the whole nine yards. There are even businesses that will deliver it to you straight from a Lancaster cooperative. I can't afford most cheese anyway, only eat a few kinds and can't afford organic. But I limit my consumption. I buy organic milk. Meat is actually an area I would seriously want to buy organic, considering most toxins concentrate in the fats of milk, cheese, meat. But since I eat those things so rarely, that's my compromise. Also from what I have tasted, organic free range poultry is superior. I don't like the other meats anyway so I can't really judge. For me, the most important thing in my food purchases is to support my LOCAL agriculture, and also local businesses. Even the local greengrocer, which has great prices, is a fun place to go. Most of the stuff comes from Mexico, but most of the shoppers are from there too! They carry stuff imported from the Middle East too. The store is filled with a whole variety of ethnicities. That's where I go for my out of season splurges. I enjoy educating myself about where my food comes from, and meeting and getting to know local producers and local business people. Here is a link that might be useful: Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch

Firstly if you want to go organic, the best approach is to use nothing unless it's necessary. If you attract birds to your garden they will control a lot of the insect problems. The time to start thinking pesticides (organic or otherwise) is when a problem develops. small outbreaks can normally be controlled by hand (no pesticides at all). large caterpillar outbreaks can be easily treated with dipel or success, aphids with a squirt of water or larger outbreaks with a small spray of neem oil. Personally I dont like pyrethrum, it is broad spectrum and can upset the balance of an organic garden more than is usually necessary, it's better to target each pest problem individually. If you want to grow organically, then the "less is more" approach works very well. The more you use pesticides of any kind, the more you upset the natural balance and the more you need to rely on the pesticides.