“Are you really putting in what’s right for your body?” “Ingesting pesticides can inhibit brain development.” “Only organic foods can keep you safe.” Catch cries such as these seem to plague the media. However, consumers do not need to constantly worry about eating a strictly organic diet. These phrases use the fear tactic when, in fact, these claims aren’t always true. Eating conventional, or non-organic foods, is not as bad as you think. And organic foods are not as praiseworthy as they seem to be. The organic label should not be a symbol for edible. America should stop ridiculing conventional foods, and instead, consume them because they are safe to eat, better for a growing population, and are less expensive than their organic counterparts. To begin, organic foods do not have significantly better nutritional and health value than conventional foods. Many people choose to go organic because they want to live a “healthy, pesticide-free lifestyle”. Contrary to popular belief, organic farming actually does use pesticides. The word organic does not necessarily mean pesticide free. Organic food means that the pesticides used are derived from natural ingredients. Another common misconception is that the pesticides used in organic farming are safer, just because they are natural. That is not necessarily true. When compared to other naturally occurring pesticides, the residues of synthetic pesticides were shown to have lower levels of cancer promoting substances called