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Members of the food community have discussed the pros and cons of adopting an organic diet. Some say that the rise in price is not worth the financial cost. Proponents of organic food say the diet has higher vitamins and is less harmful than the conventional diet.

“Organic food is now a federally mandated program,” said Jennifer Reeve, assistant professor of organic and sustainable agriculture.

She said organic farms have to be certified and meet minimum standards, which include generating fertility on farms with natural materials such as manure and composts instead of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

In order to be certified, a farm must make more than $2,500 a year in growth. However, farms that make less than that do not have to be certified even though they can still be referred to as organic farms, Reeve said.

“Research does point out to a general trend that most organic farms have a lower environmental footprint,” she said.

She also said that research has been done in a controlled setting that sometimes organic foods do show up as having higher amounts of vitamin C and antioxidants.

Although some people are concerned about food-poisoning outbreaks associated with animal manure used in producing organic food, Reeve said there is no evidence for the case.

“I personally suspect that there’s a lot of fear among the manufacturers of pesticides and farm chemicals,” she said. “There’s a lot of fear that all these media debates about organic food could hurt their bottom line.”