Is it worth paying more for organic food or is it just a scam?

We are being told to eat more vegetables to lower our risk of disease and have a healthy and happy life. However, many of the fruit and vegetables we eat are smothered in toxic chemicals which surely take away some of the health benefits. The answer to this would logically be to eat naturally grown foods. But organic food carries such a high price tag. Why does it cost so much more to grow food without chemical pesticides? After all, organic pesticides exists - organic foods aren't grown without any treatment at all, it's just that the treatments have to comply with certain soil association standards. So it's not as if organic farmers are helplessly losing half of their crops to insects or disease, so the remaining fruit and vegetables are rare and therefore expensive. Even if organic treatment for crops cost more, with the scale of operations that cost should only be a few pence more per vegetable than its conventionally grown counterpart, not double. I do think there is an element of ripping people off with organic food, though I don't doubt it's ultimately better for you.