People do it organic and especially local vegetables because they are more nutritious. But "more nutritious" doesn't mean "more vitamins". First of all, which v

People do it organic and especially local vegetables because they are more nutritious. But "more nutritious" doesn't mean "more vitamins". First of all, which vitamins? Surely they didn't test for every single vitamin found in all vegetables, not to mention other nutrients. Second, it's dubious whether the nutrient theory of nutrition completely describes our body's relationship with food. Many people eat organic food because it eliminates the unknowns. We know that industrial farming has a negative effect on food quality, but the negative effect could be even larger than we are capable of measuring, so better to play it safe. This echoes Europe's policy on GMOs, which is that if there is any risk of catastrophe, that risk is not worth taking. There is a name for this sort of policy, but I've forgotten the term and can't seem to find it. Another reason that I personally avoid industrial agriculture is because it is fundamentally unsustainable: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/a-banker-bets-on-organic-farming/ http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/a-banker-bet.... I get all of my vegetables from a local farm mainly for this reason and another that comes from taking a sort of Marxist perspective on the issue. Industrial farming creates a lot of repetitive, unfulfilling jobs. I'd rather support people that live with and love their land, who get to engage with the challenge of optimizing all of the energy and nutrient flows in their farm. Running a farm can actually be a very interesting design/engineering problem.