Linus Doll, For USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin 7:49 a.m. CT April 8, 2017

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I have never been obsessed with what is going around, in perhaps the last 50years, more or less, that I call the organic food craze. Latelywe are bombarded with ads about organic food and how much better it is for us. I became curious and decided to find out just what is meant by organic.

My dictionary shows 12definitions of this word, but I will only use the very first one and it should suffice for this article. It says this:Noting or pertaining to a class of compounds that formerly comprised only those existing in or derived from plants or animals, but now includes all other compounds of carbon. So what does this mean pertaining to the food we eat? Wikipedia defines organic foods as those that are produced that do not involve modern synthetic inputs such as pesticides and chemical fertilizers, etc.

Here is what got me to thinking. Heck, when I was a young boy, my parents planted a big garden with vegetables, sweet corn, potatoesand such, and I never saw them using anything on their crops except sweat and labor. So that tells me I was eating organic food many years ago. I remember my brother Tony and I had to pick potato bugs by hand. No spraying with chemicals back then. Food must have been good;Istill am here.

What really got me to thinking about this article was when I read an advertisement about eggs. Seems like a certain company claims that their eggs are the best and they give you the best in taste, nutrition, variety and savings. Wow! Now they sell organic eggs, cage-free eggs and best eggs. I am a bit confused. I wonder how they get their chickens to lay three different types of eggs. I checked in one of our local supermarkets and I found regular eggs for 98 cents for 18 eggs and the aforementioned best eggs were priced above$3a dozen. Thats a saving? My opinion is an egg is an egg and only the chicken has the say about what it is.

Another ad that caught my eye was one for organic butter. Years ago, people churned their own butter and added a little salt so it didnt taste so flat, but we didnt call it organic. All the stores only called it salted or unsalted. Now they tell us the organic butter is better for us. Huh? What really got me was the cost. One ad was for $5.69 a pound and another was for $4.49 for selected 16-ounce varieties. What are they adding to the cream to make varieties of butter? Can they still be called organic? If a person is a believer in organic food, more power to them. Eggs and butter are only two of the many products that are on the organic bandwagon, and I am sure the bandwagon has not stopped rolling. I just cant jump up on it.

Continuing on with my curiosity, I went online to see what the experts have to say about organic food. When I found what I was looking for, I clicked on print and got six full pages of information. I will only write a few quotes that I thought were interesting. Most of these are answers to questions.

Your friends are right: Organic food does have some benefits, but depending on what your friends told you, some may be bigger than others. A new study published by the American College of Physicians that reviewed 200 studies and determined that organic foods do not have higher vitamin or mineral content than the same foods grown using conventional methods.

The study has been hotly debated, and some outlets say the added-cost of organics is wasted money. Others point out that focusing on nutritional benefit misses the point entirely of certifying, supporting, and buying organic foods. Regardless, the trust is this: The result should cast doubt on any assertions that organic foods somehow have higher nutritional benefits than conventional foods.

Whether you should buy organic foods over conventional depends entirely on you, your budget,and what you expect to get out of those foods. If the reason youve been buying organic is because you believe theyre better for you nutritionally, then theres no reason to continue.

So you ask, Linus, do you buy organic? The answer is Yes, but only if the price is less than your name brand product. I drink tea (green) just about every day and I found a brand of organic tea bags that suits my budget. And I still am here.

Shop wisely.

Linus Doll of Fond du Lac writes community columns for The Reporter. This is his 105thcolumn.

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Doll wonders about organic foods - Fond du Lac Reporter