Organic foods becoming popular in Pennsylvania

• Natural and organic foods are making their way into the mainstream around the country and Beaver County with literature touting their benefits and stores making organic products more widely available.
• Kathy Fiorenza of South Beaver Township said she started buying more organic food when she married her husband, Jason, seven years ago.
• Renee Swanson of Beaver Falls said she started buying organic foods for herself and her two children, ages 4 and 6, on a regular basis about a year ago after her husband, Matt, died of colon cancer.
• Don Tice, manager of DeWalt's Health Food Centre in New Brighton, said more people have been buying organic foods after reading the book "Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You To Know About," a book that features natural remedies for a variety of health issues.
• Sandra McCafferty said they believe eating organic is the way to cleanse and heal the body and the way to live.
• Customers asked for the store to carry fresh produce for years, and now there is a steady customer base who buys produce every week, McCafferty said.
• She said she noticed an increase in customers buying organic about five years ago, and the "Natural Cures" book has spurred another wave of people who are going organic.
• Giant Eagle in Rochester and Chippewa feature Nature's Basket, a line of natural and organic products ranging from groceries, dairy products and health and beauty care.
• "People who still want to snack, but want a healthier, more nutritional kind of snack are going there (to the organic food section)," Roberts said.
• While the cost to produce organics is greater than the cost to produce traditional foods, Roberts said there is good news for consumers.