Misconceptions About Organic Food - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. I am Katie Holbert with Willy Greens organic farm, located in Monroe, Washington. If you are buying locally, you know, either at your local farmers market or kind of a local produce stand, or even just directly at a local farm, you can buy things almost comparable to anything that is non-organic. And if the price is a little bit higher at the same token, you are actually getting more for your money, because of the fact that when you buy from an organic farm, especially a local farm, you are going to be getting produce that was cut that day or harvested within twenty four hours. Which means it is going to have a longer shelf life in your fridge, or on your counter or anything like that. Versus when you are getting it shipped in, which you are with food that is not organic. You are getting it shipped in from large places. It could have been harvested five days ago, and you have got basically two days of any sort of life left in it before it is going to start to go bad. I would also say another misconception is that, you know, organic farmers are just hippies, "We are just living the life." We get questions here a lot like, "What are you really growing?" You know we are growing some herbal remedies here on the farm, and that is just not the case. The reality is that it is just the healthier way to eat. It is the healthier way to live. It is better for you. It is not infested with chemicals and pesticides and things like that. Most of them are just farmers, they are actually not hippies at all, and they are not into that lifestyle. They get up early. They work all day, go to bed early and they do not really support that lifestyle. I would say that there used to be a misconception, I am not sure if there is anymore. But people would go into the grocery store, and you would look at the produce and you would think "Ew, it looks dirty. It looks old. It looks like I do not want to buy that." and the reality was, in the beginning what was happening when organic kind of first came on the scene is that people did not really understand the value of it, and so they were not buying... stores were not really buying a lot of the organic produce. So, there was no turn over, it would just sit there, and they would not wash it, they would not clean it. And they would just sit there and get old and people would say "I am not going to get that, I do not want that." It was really just the lack of education. So, the more people have gone to understand the value of organic food, the more that stores are buying it and people are buying it. And we are able to have kind of that turn over of product in the stores. So, people are getting it fresh that day when it is picked at the farm, its brought to the store, and you can get it right there, right then. And it looks beautiful, tastes wonderful. Sometimes that happens in areas where maybe it is not as popular. You know, people have not really grabbed onto the lifestyle per say of organic farming and organic living. And so, they are not quite having the turn over of their produce. So, it might feel like it is not as good of quality. And that is really just the lack of understanding of that is happening around. I would say those are probably the greatest misconceptions.