1. Are Organic Foods More Nutritious than Conventional Foods?
Created by Kasey Mixon
Georgia Agriculture
Education Curriculum Office
July, 2003

2. Objectives Define “organic foods” Introduce the issue Look at research
Answer: Why isn’t there sufficient research?
Conclude

3. Organic Food USDA: emphasize use of renewable resources
conservation of soil and water
no conventional pesticides, fertilizers with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge
no bioengineering
no ionizing radiation

4. Organic Farming been around for decades during past decade
*became fastest growing sector in ag.
*annual increase = 20% or more

5. Organic Agriculture controversial claims
one such claim: organic is more nutritious than conventional
is this true? is there proof?

6. Is This True?
The Soil Association says so: *Vitamin C *minerals *phytonutrients *less water
That sounds good, doesn’t it?
The soil association is the united kingdoms leading organic food and farming organization (define phytonutrients)

7. Is There Proof? Alex Avery & Dennis Avery (Hudson Institute) say:
*the organic industry is attempting to promote their products by degrading the foods that “made Americans taller, stronger, and longer-lived than any people in history” & there just isn’t enough evidence to prove their claims.

8. What Does Research Conclude?
Virginia Worthington, M.S., Sc.D., C.N.S., examined all of the 41 research studies on this issue
compiled data
calculated % difference between organic and conventional values for 35 vitamins and minerals

9. Worthington’s Study Formula used: organic value – conventional value
conventional value X 100

10. Worthington’s Results
Organic crops were:
Higher in:
Vitamin C
Iron
Magnesium
Phosphorus
Lower in:
Nitrates

11. Nutrient Content of Organic Versus Conventional Crops: Mean % Difference (Worthington, 2001)
Vitamin C
+27.0
Iron
+21.1
Magnesium
+29.3
Phosphorus
+13.6
Nitrates
-15.1

12. Worthington’s Comments
no extensive research conducted to determine what health effects may result from the difference in nutrient contents: “if people stayed well on an organic diet but got violently ill as a result of consuming food grown with chemical fertilizers, then the difference would be perfectly obvious; however, that is not the case.”

13. Worthington’s Comments
more research needed
great amount of variability in agricultural measurements
fertilizing methods, sunlight, temperature, rainfall, shipping and storage handling

14. More Research
Consumer Reports – researchers cannot give the nutritional edge to either group
variability in crop or cropping system?
report included quote from Willie Lockeretz, professor at Tufts University School of Nutrition and Science Policy: “the growing system you use probably does affect nutrition, but it does it in a way so complex you might be studying the problem forever.”

15. Organic Farming Research Foundation
the definitive study has not been done
why? too many variables to control
like what?
crop variety
time after harvest
post-harvest handling
soil type
climate

16. The Soil Association Organic foods have higher levels of: less water
Vitamin C, minerals, phytonutrients
less water
makes a real difference to people’s and animal’s health
good results for alternative cancer therapies
no proof of research for these claims

17. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
non committal on the issue
“USDA makes no claims that organically produced food is safer or more nutritious than conventionally produced food”
why? not enough research, most likely

18. Other Journal and Magazine Articles
Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter on this issue:
“no one knows”
“We just don’t have enough data” Kate Clancey, PhD of the Henry Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture

19. Other Articles
Andrea Chernus, MD, RN, CDN: “there is no scientific proof that someone eating a well-balanced organic diet is healthier than a person eating a well-balanced conventional diet”

20. Other Articles
Sir John Krebs, Chair of the United Kingdom’s Foods Standards Agency: “the current scientific evidence does not show that organic food is any safer or more nutritious than conventionally produced food”

21. Other Articles
Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics: “under the basic standards of organic farming, there is no sufficient evidence for a system-related effect on product quality due to the production method” (Lotter, 2003)

22. Other Articles
Journal of Sustainable Agriculture: “many of the health claims for organic products remain unresolved” (Ding, Wang, Xie, & Yang, 2003)

23. Why Such Little Research?
several parts to this answer
organic farming just recently experiencing significant growth
Sales:
$1 billion
$3.3 billion
$7.8 billion

24. Growth Acreage: more than doubled between 1992-1997
more than doubled again between
The following table shows the changes by individual years

25. US Certified Organic Farmland in 1,000 of acres (Green & Kremen, 2002)
% change
Item
1992
1993
1994
1995
1997
2000
2001
92-97
97-01
00-01
Pasture
532
491
435
279
496
810
1040 7
109 28
Cropland
403
465
557
639
850
1219
1305
111 53
Total
935
956
991
918
1357
2029
2344 44 74 16

27. Why Such Little Research?
Increased demand = recognition of a need for more research
What do you need in order to conduct research?
FUNDS!

28. U.S. Research Funding 1999 = $1.4 million 2000 = $3.6 million
Funding is growing, so answers should come

29. U.S. Research Funding

30. Why Such Little Research?
Such a complex issue with many different parts needing to be researched
Hard to perform a fair comparison and analysis between the two systems

31. SO…. Organic is most likely here to stay
We need answers to the many questions about it, so….
MORE RESEARCH NEEDS TO BE CONDUCTED!

32. What Have You Learned – Hopefully?
What an organic food product is
The issue = organic vs. conventional, is there a nutritional difference?
What research says & why there is so little

33. Any Questions?