With the growing number of mainstream grocery stores selling organic foods and, on occasion, running out of them, making the right choices for your health may be easier said than done. Multi-national corporaations are interested in the profits from organic food, not the health value, and there's no greater offender than Wal-Mart, whose organic milk, for instance, comes from large factory farms, not to mention it's pasteurized.

To help pick the best food, learn how to read food labels and produce stickers. Those little stickers on fruit and vegetables contain different PLU codes depending on whether the fruit was conventionally grown, organically grown or genetically engineered.

The PLU code for conventionally grown fruit consists of four numbers, organically grown fruit five numbers prefaced by the number 9, and GM fruit five numbers prefaced by the number 8.

Reviewing product information also helps you understand the health-harming difference between, for example, conventional vegetables and those grown without pesticides, sewage sludge, genetic modification and ionizing radiation.

An even better option is to find local sources of wholesome, healthy foods that support the environment and your community. A recent article, listing several great online resources, can help you locate a convenient source near you.

Vital Votes reader Robin from Ontario, Canada points out a troubling trend:

"I am a small mixed organic farmer in Ontario. What seems very hard to convey is that the only known long term sustainable form of agriculture is a small mixed farm. In Canada, this year, there are some 50 fewer organic farms. This would no doubt be reflected in the U.S. as a trend.

"Understanding that the supply of organic food is not going to meet increasing demand, means that establishing relationships with farmers will probably become necessary. As you point out, the U.S.D.A. has created an organic model that favors corporate agri-business, that may produce food that you don't want to consume for moral, environmental and nutritional reasons.

The organic movement has inadvertently served to divide small farmers. This is a big mistake."

Biochemist Dr. Russ Bianchi from Soquel, California adds:

"Be very wary of alleged third party organic certification; particularly on processed food or beverage labels! 'Organic', as Dr. Mercola has saliently and repeatedly pointed out, has been badly bastardized and hijacked in the lexicon, and the term is of less and less assurance of product wholesomeness or nutritional benefit.

"There continue to be many cases where produce, or very processed industrial ingredients, are claimed to be 'organic', with paper certification given (in exchange only for MONEY) and NO actual inspections of fields, or processing plants, are being done at all ... As the ancient Romans suggested: 'Caveat Emptor' (Let The Buyer Beware)."

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