I would choose organic foods over their conventional counterparts for a few reasons.

The first reason is it is much healthier for you. This is because there are no pesticides or herbicides sprayed on the food. This is important because the suffix "cide" means "to kill." You don't want to put something in your body that was meant to kill. You want to put something in your body that was meant to heal and nourish.

Secondly, you want to eat organic in order to avoid Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). The reason for this is because these are foods that have been gene spliced to created new creatures that have not been tasted on anyone before, and could have very harmful effects on humans. An example of this is taking genes from salmon to create square tomatoes. This is completely going against mother nature but farmers like it because they can then package more tomatoes in a crate. There are also gene splicing techniques used to make soft foods like tomatoes stronger and thicker skins so they don't brake when shipped. The GMOs could cause diseases or other serious problems.

Third, it IS a great thing to support your local organic store over the name brand. When I am at home, I always go to my local organic store and I personally know the manager and he know's what kinds of fruits I like and he goes out of his way to help me get what I need. Build that type of relationship with the workers at your organic store.

Which is better for the economy? That is hard to say. I wish that the answer was organic, but the fact is that it really depends who is growing the organic food. If the company growing the organic food is a large, industrial organic company like Earthbound, I don't think it would be much different than buying from a large Agribusiness company, or a large conventional company in general, than, let's say, Kraft, for a lack of a better example and comparison.

So, next time when you walk into your organic store, look for the produce marked "locally grown," and then you know that you are positively benefiting your community. What even better is to go to your local farmer's market and to meet the growers first hand. There's nothing better than to shake the hand of the person who grew your food and helped to bring it to your dinner table.