When I was growing up, I was taught the importance of quality. The value of something well-crafted, useful and beautiful was worth saving up to purchase. It is a core value personally, and in my business.
Searching for ingredients, I always look for organically grown and fair traded. These options are almost always more costly than their conventional counterparts, but I know it's worth it for the quality they bring to my products, as well as for the health they bring to my customers, communities around the world, and the environment at large. For the same reasons, Nüssli118° goes through the process of organic certification each year. I do it because it reflects my own values, but most of all for you, my customers.
According to Time, organic food contains fewer pesticides and heavy metals than conventional food. Fruits, vegetables and grains labeled organic are grown without the use of most synthetic pesticides or artificial fertilizers. "Roundup", a commonly used herbicide, has been classified as a “probable human carcinogen,” and the insecticide chlorpyrifos has been associated with developmental delays in infants. Studies have also suggested that pesticide residues—at levels commonly found in the urine of kids in the U.S.—may contribute to ADHD prevalence; they’ve also been linked to reduced sperm quality in men.
A 2014 meta-analysis in the British Journal of Nutrition found that organically grown crops were not only less likely to contain detectable levels of pesticides, but because of differences in fertilization techniques, they were also 48% less likely to test positive for cadmium, a toxic heavy metal that accumulates in the liver and kidneys.
As harmful chemicals are not used in organic farming, there is minimal soil, air and water pollution—helping to ensure a safer and healthier world for future generations to live in! It's interesting that the FDA and USDA tell us that conventional food is as healthy as organic food. Scientific research has also not "conclusively proven" that organic food is healthier than conventional, namely because there has been counter research done to prove that conventional food is better than organic. The exceptions are organic milk and organic tomatoes. Recent studies have shown that these food products are healthier than non-organic milk and non-organic tomatoes, respectively.
I like to think that everyone should have access to and be able to afford organic foods. Unfortunately, that's not the case. So I agree, "an unconventional apple is better than no apple". If your choice is a financial one, check out the Environmental Working Group's consumer guides, "The Clean 15" and "The Dirty Dozen", to see which conventional produce has the most and least harmful pesticides year-to-year.
