Julie Scelfo reports in the Sept. 24, 2007 issue of Newsweek that the boom in restaurants serving local organic produce has come with an unexpected downside: more bugs in our food (you don’t say). She writes that without pesticides to deter them, aphids, ladybugs, caterpillars and beetles are tagging along on the journey from farm to kitchen to dinner table with greater frequency. But the reactions among diners, she says, are as diverse as the critters they’re finding on their plates.

Some are said to be furious, especially considering they’re paying more for organic food (a lot more) — but a surprising number are cheered. To those customers, Scelfo writes that such uninvited guests are proof that the produce really is fresh and pesticide-free.

Ben Long, a communications consultant and foodie from Kalispell, Mont, is quoted as saying "I, for one, would much prefer a bug on my plate to pesticide in my bloodstream."

And sometimes it’s more than just a bug, the story continues. When Richard Samaniego, chef at California’s Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa, opened a box of organic lettuce last year, a frog jumped out. He was quoted as saying, "It was a good thing I found it before we started chopping."