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Cayce, S.C. (WACH) - Making sure you get what you pay for sounds like a pretty good idea right?  When it comes to eating organic you have to do your homework to make sure what you're buying is exactly what's advertised.

It's not as easy as slapping a label on a product.

Fruits and veggies have to go through an extensive USDA certification process that includes regulations on how the crops are grown, the land they're grown on and the types of pesticides used on them.
 
"In South Carolina for instance, we do have grass fed beef that's available, free range poultry, pasture raised pork, so we do have a lot of naturally produced products," said Assistant Agriculture Commissioner Martin Eubanks.

Eubanks says local seems to be the new organic.  A recent survey shows 90 percent of people polled in South Carolina prefer products grown or manufactured right here at home.

"People want to know where the food is produced and how it was produced,” adds Eubanks.  “Whether it’s organic, whether its local, is really not the issue."

And whether the nutritional value is really the same, for example a bag of non-organic carrots is the same as a bag of organic carrots.

"The science that I’ve seen says all that is really comparable, yes."

Eubanks says there is a difference between naturally and organically raised products, and the standards each of those products have to meet is also different.

For more information on the organic certification process: Click Here.