After buying a sack of apples from Tiny’s Organic Fruit and Produce, the Ballard resident said she tries to get all organic dairy items and leafy green veggies. When it comes to other produce, “it depends on how expensive it is,” Bramlett said.Demand for organic items has grown faster than a zucchini in summer — swelling 20 percent annually nationwide in recent years. But when does it make sense to plunk down the extra cash for organic milk, spinach and hamburger, and when are conventionally produced items OK? What are the health and environmental effects, and what does the organic label really mean?People are turning to organic items for a variety of reasons — often with health topping the list.

“A lot of people with children — they’re the ones that are more concerned with it,” said Kristin Barquist, between customers at the Tiny’s stand. Some of the shoppers buy the organic produce and turn it into baby food.For parents concerned about the effect of the pesticides used in conventional food production, buying organic makes sense, University of Washington research shows.Children eating non-organic foods were switched for five days to an organic diet and pesticide levels were measured in their urine before and after the change. The study — published this past fall — found that some pesticides disappeared from the children’s urine after going organic.

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