Are Pesticides Used in Organic Farming Different from Those Used in Conventional Farming?

We grow both conventional and organic verified blueberries and, to some extent, the operations are very similar. We use fungicides, fertilizers and insecticides in both operations. The big difference is the source of the chemical and when it's certified as organic it has to be a naturally occurring organic compound. And in our conventional operation it's interesting because a lot of the different chemicals that we will use in conventional are really just synthetic versions of the organic compounds we use in our organic operations. Well, we grow organic vegetables as well as conventional vegetables. I think what people need to understand is that we do use pesticides on organic vegetables as well. They're just - we're allowed to use certain pesticides on them that are derived naturally. Also, the rate at which we then use those on the organic crops is at an actually much higher volume and often times more applications than we actually do on the conventional side. We just wouldn't be able to produce enough crops to feed everybody if we were organically growing and not using any pesticides. Oh, I don't know - that's an interesting question. Is conventional better than organic or is organic better than conventional? You know I guess my response to that is, they're different. And to some extent I think it's the consumer that ultimately just makes the choice. "Do I want to buy only organic or am I OK with conventional?" I think it just comes down to a personal choice. "Do I want to drive a Chevy, do I want to drive a Ford?" "Do I want to eat meat, do I want to be a vegetarian?" Life is full of choices and organic or conventional is just one more choice. I personally don't think that there's any health reason to choose organic over conventional, but I think that there may be personal reasons that people make that decision.