Organic seeds - save your money

TPP went to his favorite garden shoppe to buy a few packs of seeds, some lettuce & spinach to put in his cold frame for some early season salad. And there, prominently displayed, was an entire rack of "organic" seeds. Now other than the absurdity of the name (the alternative is inorganic?) this is nothing but pure green-washing, marketing for the sake of making money from people who don't know much but want to do the right thing. There is not one single biologically relevant difference between organic lettuce seed and "inorganic" lettuce seed. The one real reason for considering foods produced by organic gardening is to reduce pesticides in the environment and their residues in your food. This is a real and valid concern, but mostly the danger is greatly exaggerated, but still, OK, go with organic if you choose. It is better for the environment, and without question pesticides are overused and many times needless. If you think fertilizer is the issue, and again it is overused, plants don't know or care where than nitrate ion came from. If you think organic foods are more nutritious then you are among the gullible who just might pay more for organic seeds even though this will have no impact what so ever on your raising and eating of these crops. You don't need organic seed to garden organically. The only meaningful argument is again organic farming is better for the environment, and this is quite small segment of agriculture when measured against the whole, and a reasonable cost-benefit analysis is that they aren't worth the difference in price, which may not be justified at all by differences in the cost of production. So then who is pocketing that difference in price? Yes, by all means, do the right thing, but no reason to be a sucker in the process. Oh, yes, over there are the organic tobacco cigarettes.