英语四级 2026年6月·第1套 Part Ⅲ Section C (1) 阅读理解（四选一）试卷排版

Is organic food worth the higher price? It's the classic grocery store dilemma. On the one hand, your family dinner table deserves only the best. On the other hand, your wallet can only stretch so far.

Whether or not to buy organic is a personal decision, said Mike von Massow, professor of Food Agriculture.

Science won't give a clear-cut answer to the question of whether organic food is "better". There are often trade-offs(权衡) and answers become less definitive depending on the product under consideration.

One thing is definitive: Organic and conventionally grown food are equally nutritious. From a nutrition point of view, there is no difference between organic and traditionally grown products.

Organic products don't necessarily have fewer pesticides(杀虫剂)—in fact, they may have more. There is also no big difference between organic and non-organic products from a food-safety perspective. Even organic growers use pesticides. Testing shows little if any pesticide remains on conventionally grown products.

In fact, organic farmers often use larger quantities of pesticide because they can only use the natural variety of insect-killers. Chemical pesticides generally kill a much wider range of pests(害虫) than any single natural pesticide.

The use of animal waste in organic agriculture can also be a factor in the spread of bacteria like E. coli and salmonella. Over the past 10 years, Canada has seen more food-safety recalls for organic products, proportionally, than for conventional products.

On the whole, organic agriculture may have a smaller environmental footprint. That's mostly because the risk of groundwater contamination from organic farming is lower. Organic farmers never use neonics, the controversial pesticides that have been linked to shrinking bee populations worldwide.

Traditional agriculture has been making "dramatic improvements" to reduce its impact on the environment.

It isn't a black-and-white picture, though.

Organic farming is much less efficient when it comes to land use, although yields vary considerably depending on the crop.

On the other hand, advocates of organic farming argue yields and efficiency could be significantly improved if the food industry devoted as much research and money to organic farming as it does conventional agriculture.