Product quality in organic and conventional produce: Is there a difference?

Economists studying markets for organic produce and proponents of organic agriculture have often assumed that organic produce has more defects than conventional produce and that consumers buying organics are exchanging visual quality for perceived food safety and environmental benefits. Analysis of primary retail‐level data on quality for eight organic and conventional produce items found no statistically significant difference in quality for most products. The results provide evidence that the assumption that organic produce is necessarily of inferior visual quality is unwarranted. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.