Organic food continues its stately march into the mainstream. A Mintel study says 52 percent of Americans bought organic foods in the past year, and 26 percent bought organic beverages. Strikingly, 32 percent claimed they buy them “as often as possible.” They’d find it more possible were it not for price. Two-thirds said they’d “buy more organics if the products cost less.”

That’s consistent with a Harris Poll in which 95 percent of adults agreed that organic food “is more expensive”-topping the numbers who said it’s “safer for the environment” (79 percent), “healthier” (76 percent) and “tastes better” (39 percent).

Some places are more organiphilic than others. Scarborough Research finds 35 percent of adults in the San Francisco metro area ate organic foods in the month prior to being polled. Also high on the list are Seattle (32 percent), Portland, Ore. (27 percent), Denver (26 percent), Washington, D.C. (26 percent) and San Diego (24 percent). One further indication that organics have moved beyond the countercultural fringe: Scarborough says 29 percent of organic consumers shopped at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in the week before being queried.