Is organic food grown without pesticides?  Of course not, that would be silly, the yields would be 10%.

Then why do so many organic food buyers think they have no pesticides?  Mostly because a $29 billion industry relies on that sort of casual deception. And Dr. Oz helps.

Not just organic pesticides either, synthetic pesticides are just fine for organic food. But goofy claims will imply that synthetic pesticides are linked to (insert your favorite scare journalism disease here) while organic food marketers (and customers) then ignore the fact that rotenone, the most widely used natural pesticide on organic foods, is linked to Parkinson's Disease.  Why would they hype studies that imply possible links (because there are no causal ones, unless the animal models drink the stuff) between conventional food and negative health outcomes but then ignore negative health outcomes about organic pesticides?

Jeff Stier, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research, debunks some common marketing myths at Real Clear Science.