Organics Battling Agricultural Chemical Companies

You may have heard recent reports in the media about a new report claiming that organic food offers no nutritional benefits over non-organic food.

Well, Shane Heaton, founder of Farm Fresh Organics and the nutritionist for the Biological Farmers of Australia sheds some light on this supposedly ’new report’…

The report itself came from the UK Food Standards Agency and a review they commissioned into the nutritional differences between organic and non-organic food. The published paper, “Nutritional quality of organic foods: a systematic review,” will be published in the September edition of the “American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.” In a nutshell, the report claims that there are no significant nutritional benefits to be gained from eating organic. Having published a similar review myself in 2001 and followed the research since, I know there’s ample evidence of nutritional benefits in organic food.

Some points to note about this latest criticism of organic food:

1. Even if there weren’t more nutrients in organic food, organic food and farming deliver a whole raft of benefits beyond just better nutrient content, including avoiding pesticides, avoiding hyperactivity-causing food additives, better taste, environmental benefits such as storing more carbon in organic soils and less wildlife and environmental damage due to fertilizer and pesticide run-off, plus the social and ethical benefits of not asking our farmers to poison themselves, their kids, their workers and their neighbours in the pursuit of cheap food.

2. This was not new research, but rather a review of old research. In fact some of the included studies were more than 30 years old, using inferior analytical methods and no-longer grown crop varieties – studies that were excluded from other more rigorous reviews.

3. In several instances, the FSA analysis actually showed that organic foods tend to be more nutrient dense than conventional foods, but the authors dismissed them as ‘not important’.

4. The FSA review omitted measures of key individual antioxidants and total antioxidant capacity, important nutrients that have been measured in several more recent studies.

5. Another review in the US (March 2008) applied more rigorous selection criteria to exclude poorer quality studies and found that nutrient levels in organic food averaged 25% higher than in conventional food, concluding that the consumption of organic fruits and vegetables offered significant health benefits, roughly equivalent to an additional serving of fruit or vegetable on an average day.

6. The FSA review missed the just-published biggest study ever done, funded by the EU, showing 20-40 percent more antioxidants in organic food, plus 15 other new studies published after February 2009 (the cut-off for the FSA review) most of which use superior design and analytical methods based on criticisms of older studies. These new studies generally reinforce the findings reported in the US review, particularly in the case of Vitamin C, total phenolics, and total antioxidant capacity, which are all typically higher in organically grown foods.

7. The FSA review included some market basket studies, for which there is no way to know the specific circumstances of the farm locations, the crop varieties, the soil type, or harvest method and timing. These kinds of confounding factors confuse and obfuscate study outcomes and were excluded from the US review as well as my own.

New studies will continue to reveal the nutritional benefits of organic food. But as the organic industry grows and steps on larger commercial toes, attacks claiming organics is no better for you and a waste of money will continue to be rolled out. This latest review is by no means the last we’ll hear of this debate.

It’s unfortunate that the media gives little attention to studies confirming the benefits of organics, but when a review comes out claiming there’s no benefit, it’s big news! Australia’s farmers deserve better. Our organic farmers are growing foods with care and attention to the welfare of themselves, their customers, their workers, their communities and the environment.

Our conventional farmers shouldn’t be asked to continue poisoning themselves, their families, and their neghbours. If they glean that consumers are willing to spend more for better quality food grown without chemicals, they’d be more likely to convert to organics. Misleading headlines such as those we’ve seen in recent days serve no one but the companies selling agricultural chemicals.

Thank you Shane!  Please visit Shane’s Farm Fresh Organics site.

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