Would you pay a premium price for...

[Pedrito]

If you think about it, the same can be said of humans.  Introduction of the grain-based agriculture caused a significant decline in the health of humans, and we need to rectify it with a bunch of pills.  Maybe the new trend would be having organic humans.

Salad-eating humans.

...O gawd, it would mean my mom was right! NOOOOOOoooooo!

L.

[grumbler]

This is my experience too.  Especially with chicken.

I found British chicken inedible.  When i lived there, I always bought danish.  British fish-meal chicken feed gives the chicken a distinctly fishy taste, noticeable if you haven't been brought up on it.

[grumbler]

Ruminants get sick during raising because they are fed cereals to quickly gain weight, but they are not made (or created  ) to digest cereals: if fed with grass and hay, they stay perfectly healthy, although they gain weight at a far slower rate.

Not so.  They are healthier, but they don't "stay perfectly healthy."  The very notion of perfect health is absurd.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I would try them and then carry on buying the products if I thought they tasted better.

I've found that there are a lot of products where it really is worth paying for the superior stuff; eg chicken, cooked meats, bread, raisins, salad stuff, beer.......er........most food in fact 

The extra expense is insignificant to people on a western middle-class income, but I appreciate it is a problem for students, people on low wages and so on.

[Pedrito]

Ruminants get sick during raising because they are fed cereals to quickly gain weight, but they are not made (or created  ) to digest cereals: if fed with grass and hay, they stay perfectly healthy, although they gain weight at a far slower rate.

Not so.  They are healthier, but they don't "stay perfectly healthy."  The very notion of perfect health is absurd.

For illnesses related to incorrect nutrition, if fed the right food the animals will stay healthy; for other kinds of illness, well they will be subject to them like any other animal, duh.

L.

[Sheilbh]

I found British chicken inedible.  When i lived there, I always bought danish.  British fish-meal chicken feed gives the chicken a distinctly fishy taste, noticeable if you haven't been brought up on it.

Yep.  Chicken's a luxury for me because I don't like buying the cheap factory farmed stuff because it tastes worse and I disagree with that sort of farming.  But the free-range stuff, which tastes superb, is considerably more expensive

I broadly agree with RH.  In my experience more expensive food, artisanal style food generally is better and worth the extra cost.  If I could afford it it would be all I buy.  As I can't I make sort of practical decisions.  I value good meat so I'll buy expensive stuff rarely, or use unfashionable cuts that take a lot of stewing.  I really love good cheese so I'll buy a little of the good stuff but have it rarely with crackers not as standard in a sandwich.  Fruit and veg and I generally don't buy the expensive stuff because I've not noticed a big enough taste difference (except, weirdly, with carrots).

But I do think more 'traditional' rearing is generally better when it comes to animals and, if I could, I'd only eat that sort of meat.

[Caliga]

I recently tried some "normal organic" meat bought from a normal butcher, and I must say that there's a noticeable increase in taste, especially for courtyard meat, i.e. chicken, rabbit and turkey. Beef is more flavorful, while pork meat doesn't seem to gain a lot from organic raising methods.

But, aside from the taste that0's surely important, for me the main issue is about the drugs used to keep the animals healthy (or presumed so) in normal cattle farms. 

In general I'm very cynical about stuff like this here in the states, but when I was in Italy I ate at two agriturismo places--one in Tivoli and one maybe 20 km from Florence in the Tuscan countryside--which claimed to be totally organic, and the food was absolutely amazing.  If I lived in Italy like you do, I'd therefore probably vote "yes". 

[Brazen]

No. There are no proven health benefits to ordinary organic food and most of is doesn't taste sufficiently better to warrant the price.

[The Minsky Moment]

I've been to the top steak joints across the States, but none can really match Charolais "Red Label" prepared in even a modest Burgundian establishment.  More generally, I have found organic meat to be of higher quality and more tasty although there may be a kind of selection bias at work.

I also think that raising animals in open range conditions with traditional diets is more decent than force-feeding them grains or offal and making them stew in small cages in their own refuse.

[crazy canuck]

Ruminants get sick during raising because they are fed cereals to quickly gain weight, but they are not made (or created  ) to digest cereals: if fed with grass and hay, they stay perfectly healthy, although they gain weight at a far slower rate.

Not so.  They are healthier, but they don't "stay perfectly healthy."  The very notion of perfect health is absurd.

Much healthier.  He is quite right that ruminants do get sick when feed grains (corn mostly).  As a result feed lots have to pump them full of antibiotics to keep them alive long enough to fatten them for slaughter.

One of the interesting health hazards from feed lot beef are the bacteria that are produced by cattle that are feed corn.  Cattle fed a natural diet of grass has a acidically neutral stomach but cows fed with corn develop acidic stomachs.  The significance of this is the bacteria that grow in the acidic neutral stomach die when they hit our stomach because they are not adapted to an acidic envirnment but the bacteria the grows in the acidic stomach of a corn feed cow does quite well in our stomachs as well. 

As for taste that is a personal thing.  But the taste of organic grass feed beef is far superior to my taste and I am willing to pay a premium for that.  Also, anyone who says there is no difference between free range eggs and normal industrial eggs has simply not looked at them side by side.  the colour, texture and taste are completely different.  Also, Brazen is simply wrong.  Free range eggs have much more nutritional value as does grass fed beef. 

[crazy canuck]

In general I'm very cynical about stuff like this here in the states, but when I was in Italy I ate at two agriturismo places--one in Tivoli and one maybe 20 km from Florence in the Tuscan countryside--which claimed to be totally organic, and the food was absolutely amazing.  If I lived in Italy like you do, I'd therefore probably vote "yes". 

Staying in Agroturismos in Italy is what got me interested in this in the first place.  The owners were very passionate about their food and the way it was produced.  And of course it was amazing.

[The Larch]

In general I'm very cynical about stuff like this here in the states, but when I was in Italy I ate at two agriturismo places--one in Tivoli and one maybe 20 km from Florence in the Tuscan countryside--which claimed to be totally organic, and the food was absolutely amazing.  If I lived in Italy like you do, I'd therefore probably vote "yes". 

Staying in Agroturismos in Italy is what got me interested in this in the first place.  The owners were very passionate about their food and the way it was produced.  And of course it was amazing.

Italy is a country that takes its food VERY seriously.

[crazy canuck]

Fruit and veg and I generally don't buy the expensive stuff because I've not noticed a big enough taste difference (except, weirdly, with carrots).

I agree, I cant taste much of a diffence except you and I have the same taste with carrots.  For some reason organic carrots seem sweet and far more tasty.  We still buy organic because of the reports that they have more nutritional value and less nasty stuff put on them during growing.

[The Larch]

I've been to the top steak joints across the States (...)

I didn't get the chance to go to Peter Luger when I went to NY. 

[BuddhaRhubarb]

No "maybe" option? It really would depend on the cost, what you get for the cost, etc. I sometimes buy "organic" meat, but absolutely loathe that term. of course it's organic, it's meat, you know from an organism. I probably buy as much so called organic food as I do non. It's all about getting a good deal.