While all of us have our own reasons for the choices we make in the marketplace, there are real benefits associated with buying organic products.

1. Environment

First and foremost are the clear environmental benefits. Organic farming helps prevent erosion, improves soil fertility, protects groundwater, and conserves energy and biological diversity. When you buy organic products, you are supporting a healthier environment, both in general and in your own neighborhood. For example, your purchases of organic products may help keep a neighboring organic farmer in business, which supports both the local economy and the environment.

Because it avoids the use of toxic and persistent pesticides, organic farming can help reduce ground and surface water contamination, safeguarding drinking water supplies. Organic agriculture respects the balance of microorganisms in the soil and uses composted manure and other natural processes, including crop rotation, to build fertile, healthy soil—the foundation of the food chain. Organic practices avoid the use of synthetic fertilizers that can result in an overabundance of nitrogen and phosphorous in the ground. As a result, organic practices protect ground water supplies while avoiding chemical runoff that can cause “dead zones” in larger bodies of water.

Organic farmers spearhead research aimed at reducing pesticide use and minimizing agriculture’s impact on the environment. Because organic practices help protect habitats, organic production promotes species diversity. Biodiversity benefits the entire planet by boosting plant growth and helping to fight disease. Results from nine biodiversity studies comparing organic farming to conventional farming systems in the UK showed that organic farms had five times as many wild plants in arable fields and 57 percent more species than conventional farms; 25 percent more birds at the field edge and 44 percent more in the field in autumn and winter; 1.6 times as many of the invertebrate arthropods that make up bird food; and three times as many nonpest butterflies in crop areas.

2. Health Consequences

Organic farming helps limit exposure to toxic chemicals from synthetic pesticides and fertilizers that can end up in the ground, air, water, and food supply. These toxins are associated with health consequences from asthma to cancer.

Organic farm practices also recognize the powerful nature of antibiotics and avoid their abuse. Organic practices prohibit the use of hormones, antibiotics, or other drugs in animal feed for the purpose of stimulating the growth or production of livestock. If an antibiotic is used to restore an animal to health, that animal cannot be used for organic production or be sold, labeled, or represented as organic.

Public health authorities now link low-level antibiotic use in conventionally raised livestock directly to greater numbers of people having infections that are resistant to treatment with the same drugs. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have discovered that bacteria in the soil and groundwater beneath farms may be acquiring tetracycline-resistance genes from bacteria originating in pigs’ guts.

Conventionally grown farm animals in the US receive 24.6 million pounds of antibiotics a year, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). UCS notes that about 70 percent of all antibiotics produced in this country are used in livestock. Scientists, doctors, and government officials fear that routinely feeding antibiotics to livestock to make animals grow faster is contributing to the rise of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs.

Growing crops in healthy soils results in nutrient-rich foods. Increasingly, research suggests that organically grown fruits, vegetables, and grains offer higher levels of several nutrients, including vitamin C, iron, magnesiu