By: Nick Smith

               To be healthy, I recommend that everybody should eat organic produce. This is one of the easiest ways to ignite your switch to becoming a healthier person. Just switch from regular produce to organic produce. It’s as easy as switching supermarkets. This is easy to say, but for some it might not be as simple as that. I’m sure that most of you are thinking, “Well it costs more money.” This is true, but it is worth it.

               You are now probably telling yourself, “Well, I read somewhere that...”, or “Someone told me that...”, or maybe “My nutritionist told me that there is no difference in organic and commercial produce.” You might be thinking that organic is just a label. Well, to truly know the difference between the two you must be familiar with soil, and in most cases, nutritionists never even bring up soil’s importance.

               Now, what is so great about soil?  In healthy soil there are many microorganisms, and these are very important. Usually in one gram of healthy soil you’ll have six hundred million microorganisms! Also, healthy soil contains other organisms like bacteria and fungus which have a great roll, but let’s look at the microorganisms.

               What do microorganisms do exactly? Let me size up the scene here. Leaves are falling to the ground. Bugs and animals are dying. These things happen everyday. The microorganisms convert that organic, dead matter into nutrients, and feed the nutrients into the roots of the plants. The microorganisms are a big source of nutrients to your apple, your orange, or to your broccoli. Now, what happens when you spray that soil with pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides, or other chemicals? You can kill most of the microorganism population in the soil.

               When you think about it, what’s actually left in the soil to provide the nutrients to the produce? The transport system is gone. What you get out of this unhealthy soil is what many people like to call, “Fools Gold.” It looks like an apple, might even taste kind of like an apple, but really it doesn't have the nutrient value of what an apple should have. So, it would be very beneficial for you to spend the extra 10, 20, 30 cents to get organic produce because the nutrient value of the organic produce blows away that of the commercial produce.

               Mr. Neblett, biology and chemistry teacher, had his own opinions on organic produce vs. commercial produce. I asked Mr. Neblett a simple question, “Do you prefer organic food over commercial products, and if so why?” In response Mr. Neblett immediately said that he doesn’t buy organic foods, but knows that they are better. He believes that they are too expensive, which is the biggest reason why people don’t get organic produce in the first place. Why buy the same thing for more? Though it’s not the same thing. He likes the Whole Foods grocery, but still prefers his regular grocer.