It’s Friday evening and Maria, a 35-year-old mother of two, is stocking up on products for the weekend. She picks up a carton of ice cream, carefully reading the label. Bananas, lettuce, spaghetti and milk nestle in her basket. But these aren’t the typical products that line the shelves in the ordinary neighborhood market. They are organically produced products that can only be found in select stores.

Despite the higher prices of organic foods in Greece during a tough economic period, Maria has managed to buy organic produce every week from the local organic foods store for the past four years. She switched to organic after reading a magazine article that outlined the benefits of organic foods. And even though the change may have put a financial strain on the family, she’s confident about her decision. “I have young children and I want to offer them the best nutrition I can, even if that means I’ll have to cut back on other household products,” she said.

And she’s not the only one. Over the past few years more and more Greeks have been turning organic products. With a wide variety of non-processed, pesticide-free products available at their disposal, consumers have the choice – albeit at a hefty price that is sometimes double that of non-organic products. For those that opt for an organic lifestyle, it only seems normal to them to buy such products at a higher price, even if it means cutting back and economizing just to have them on their plate.

The organic foods market is rapidly growing in Greece. A recent study conducted by ICAP shows that in 2008 alone there was a 30 percent increase in sales, with the organic foods market worth 70 million euros in Greece. Research also indicates that there will be a rising preference for organic foods in the future. So, even though consumers may buy organic foods in small quantities, their mainstream appeal has turned this once luxury market into an everyday ritual.

But is organic worth it?

Not according to Dr. Jean Weese, a nutritionist who argues that "organically grown produce may be raised with a little more tender-loving care, but the taste and nutrient are no better." Dr. Weese says they may even be dangerous, for the use of animal manure as a fertilizer – rather nitrogen fertilizers – in organic farming means that organic foods are easily exposed to pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli. Weese says her research has confirmed something else: that E. coli can turn up inside organic produce, meaning that simply washing it thoroughly is not enough to eliminate the prospect of bacterial infection.

But University of California food chemist Alyson Mitchell disagrees with the detractors. Mitchell says studies have shown that organically produced foods do indeed contain more nutrients and that the risks and long-term effects of pesticides are still undetermined. As long as organic products are handled and cleaned properly, he says, there is no danger of consumers being exposed to pathogens. 

Despite the debate, people who buy organic foods see their choice as a no-brainer. Even if it means paying 70 cents more for a kilo of organic bananas. Even if packaged organic foods such as spaghetti, cereal and sugar that sit on supermarket shelves are up to double the price of their non-organic counterparts. 

And even, it seems, if they’re on a tight budget. “They put their children first. If they have young children they prefer to buy the organic foods for them, choosing the non-organic for themselves,” said Sophia, an employee at an organic foods market, adding that the most frequent customers at the store are usually mothers and senior citizens.

At the organics market, Maria takes a last look around as she makes her way to the cash register. Asked whether she would consider going back to non-organic foods, she responds, “I couldn’t take that away from my children. When they grow up they can eat anything they want, but for now, it’s organic all the way.”