For me it would be organic flour and lemons. Flour because bread and some kind of wholewheat flour here are way easier to find as organic products than standard ones, lemons because of the rind which I love so much.

Depends. If you drink milk, I would say milk. I don't drink it. I would suggest going to the farmer's market if that is an option and chosing organic meats.

This is exactly the situation I'm in. I can't afford to buy everything organic (although I would love to), but I try to make sure that the staples are at least organic: milk, butter, sugar, flour. And apples, since most of the time the 4lb bag of organic apples is cheaper than non-organic apples!

Meat, milk, and apples.

Not that it has to be "organic", but local, ethically raised meat would be one of my main concerns. Or I'd just be a vegetarian if it came to that. You can purchase a quarter or half a cow or pig or lamb for a pretty good price, if you have room for a small chest freezer.

Dairy products, soy products, and local, ethically raised meat are our priorities.

But we are able to buy almost all organic everything for a small premium because we live in Southern California. We start at the farmer's market, participate in a meat share, and then divide our shopping between Trader Joes and Whole Foods. Both supermarkets carry many organics.

I always buy organic milk, apples, peaches, berries and peppers. I am just now starting to buy organic chicken and beef but because of the price, use much less meat in our meals/cooking (not necessarily a bad thing). Other items I buy organic if it is on sale (romaine lettuce, baby carrots, butter, etc.).

I buy organics dairy products, partly because many of them are local as well. Ditto for my free range meat. I don'y buy much organic produce in the winter because it's all shipped from california (I'm in Canada) but in the summer it's a lot easier to get at least unsprayed produce.

dairy and apples. everything is give or take.

i always buy organic milk, but when it comes to veggies/fruit it kind of depends...
my rule these days has just been in terms of quality of produce, i'll buy local over organic when possible, but i bought organic cukes and zukes last week because they looked and felt so much better than the non-organic ones.

We try to buy everything organic. We're very careful not to waste anything and to buy things that are in season or local and cheaper, but overall it's not that much more expensive for us. Organic varieties of staples like orange juice, milk, and eggs, though, tend to be significantly more expensive, so we get them from our regular grocery store.

Any nutritional science class or program will tell you that the only organic products that will actually have a measurable impact on a person are tertiary products. For most Americans, this means milk and eggs.

The principal is similar to how mercury levels in a fish increase with the size of the fish.

Produce doesn't matter at all, and meat comes in second.

I always get organic apples. Their pesticide load is supposed to be high, and I seriously eat one every day. They're not that much pricier than regular apples (where I shop, anyway), and I feel much better about it.

I don't buy much meat, but when I do, it's from a fantastic butcher (Paulina Meat Market, woo!), or Whole Foods; so I don't worry too much about organic vs. conventional.

I guess I get organic yogurt, too, since it tastes worlds better than other national brands. But I've recently started making my own yogurt (using Harold McGee's technique from the NY Times; who knew it was so, so easy!), so I guess I need to start buying organic milk, eh?

http://www.abreadaday.com

well, i heard a segment on the radio (KQED, i forget if it was an NPR show or not) that talked about the nutritional quality of organically grown produce being substantially higher than conventional because of the way conventional methods deplete soils, and that made a lot of sense to me. i can't seem to find it but here is an article to the same effect:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/25/HOG3BHSDPG1.DTL
so i guess the question for me is "what am i looking to get out of the foods i eat?" if i'm buying something thinking it has great nutritional value, i should probably look into the organic version. (also, "what does trader joe's have in stock?" is a biggie)

I care a lot less about buying organic than buying locally and growing my own whenever possible. However most of what I buy locally and everything I grow is organically raised or nearly so. Not exactly an option in the winter but during the summer there's no excuse to not shop locally.

We buy organic milk and cheese because I have read studies that show that hormones and antibiotics do show up in these (and are especially high in cheese, basically a concentrated form of milk!). I don't want to feed antibiotics and fake hormones to my kids.

I also buy organic bananas (there is evidence the antifungals used on normal bananas can harm baby's nervous system) and apples (because we eat a lot).

I sometimes buy organic bread, but at the store I normally shop it has such a short shelf date (like the next day, and it is always moldy in 2) that I often buy another whole meal loaf they sell, which is additive free (but unfortunately does not use organic flour).

If I buy beef (which I don't very often) I buy organic too. If I buy chicken I always buy the cheap organic cuts (ie deboned thighs). We eat mostly veggie and fish meals. Cutting back on meat really saved us a lot and means when I do buy it I can make sure it is organic.

This is basically where I am in terms of budgeting. I split a CSA farm share with my family, so I get local and organic veggies in the summer (which is actually cheaper than buying them at the grocery store!), but you don't get to pick what you get every week. Other than that, I really can't afford to buy all organic (unless it's on sale!)

I'm a vegetarian, so I don't buy meat, but my boyfriend has tried to find ethically-raised local beef and was unable to (we live on Long Island). He's been able to find organic, but not free-range.

I'm also lactose intolerant and a little allergic to soy milk, so I can't buy organic (although I do get RBGH-free milk).

My sister is a chemist. She has performed tests on organic foods and non-organic. She said if you cannot afford organic for all your items, focus on apples and oranges because they contain the most pesticides of all the fruit.