Nutrient levels in food are more complicated than new diss of organics suggests

[marmar]

from NOW Toronto:


Organic field day
Nutrient levels in food are more complicated than new diss of organics suggests

By Wayne Roberts


The media sure had a field day last week with a study from Stanford University dissing the nutritional benefits of organic food.

Can I ask why the report, published in the Annals Of Internal Medicine, was considered so newsworthy when it wasn’t based on original research? The paper is a “meta-analysis” of some 200 other scientists’ publications over the years, the ninth in a decade and the fourth to turn thumbs-down on organic claims to nutritional superiority. Not exactly trailblazing stuff. A lot of scientists who labour in the vineyards gathering data rather than collecting studies in the library are getting a bit ticked off.

There are many questions to be cleared up about the comparative goodness of foods grown in particular ways, especially because the Ontario government is in the process of formulating a Local Food Act designed to present the Liberals as soft and cuddly at the same time as they’re tough on teachers and doctors.

One of the first things I learned when I started writing about food 15 years ago is how complex determining the nutritional level of harvested food really is. Much depends on the quality of the soil long before anyone farmed it organically or conventionally. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=188615

[randr]

1. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the better the soil the better the food.

Soil health and composition is the basis of organic farming. Not to mention the absence of petro/chemical additives.

[tama]

3. Sadly

that most simple fact is incomprehensible to technomaniac "rocket scientists" who seek not to understand the ecosystem and live as part of it, but to control it.

[tama]

2. Healthy food

is not about numerical measurement of few measurable variables, but about the whole chain of production. Healthy vibrant soil and ecosystem gives healthy food, industrial monoculture which makes the whole ecosystem ill makes the members of the ecosystem ill.

[HopeHoops]

4. I've grown strictly organic food for over 20 years. It's nice to snack while harvesting.

You can't do that with pesticide covered vegetables. Our yard isn't poisoned either. It's covered with dandylions, clover, and all sorts of other flowering weeds. We've easily got more bumble and honey bees in our yard than the entire rest of the neighborhood. The birds consider our yard the primary hunting ground, including bluebirds, flickers, all types of finches, and other song birds I don't recognize. The rabbits are everywhere and nest in our yard quite often. They love dandylion leaves. Unfortunately, they also like pea and bean plants. Small price. Because of the birds and rabbits, the falcons cruise our yard regularly and there are often hawks above.

But as for the organic approach, the best part is plucking something off a plant and eating it right there in the garden. That just SO rocks. And my three daughters all grew up gardening organically. I expect that tradition will continue.