Organic News

To attain organic certification, crops must be grown to strict standards set out by the USDA’s National Organic Program. Many consumers are reassured that plants, meat, dairy and eggs that are raised organically are grown without the use of synthetic fertilizers or genetically modified ingredients. Another requirement of the organic standard is that crops may not be fertilized with sewage sludge, the solid waste byproduct of water treatment, which includes industrial waste. The absence of sewage sludge (euphemistically termed “biosolids”) isn’t the first reason most people cite for choosing organic, but it is an important one.

A recent court ruling awarded compensation to two dairy farmers in Georgia whose herds of dairy cows died as a result of eating hay treated with sewage sludge. The sludge, and consequently the cows’ milk, contained dangerous levels of cadmium, molybdenum, chlordane, PCBs, thallium, and arsenic. Thallium can cause digestive irritation and nerve damage, and the Agriculture Department considers it a potential weapon of bioterrorists wishing to contaminate our food supply—but no agency regulates how much thallium is acceptable in milk. Certified organic dairy is more than just rBGH-free, and certified organic crops are safer in more ways than you may have realized. Sarah Aubry

The full Associated Press story covering the sewage sludge ruling is available on the Yahoo! News website: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080307/ap_on_re_us/sludge_poisoned_land_5

In October 2007, the preliminary results from a four-year study comparing organic farming to conventional, showed that organic foods are more nutritious. The Quality Low Input Food Project, funded by the European Union, was the largest study of its kind—utilizing a 725 acre farm in north-East England. The project was designed so that conventional produce and milk cows could be grown on adjacent sites to organic produce and cows. The team of scientists, led by Professor Carlo Leifert of Newcastle University, observed that up to 40 percent more antioxidants (antioxidants are enzymes or other molecules which counteract damaging effects of oxygen in tissues, possibly helping to prevent cancer and heart disease) could be found in organic fruits and vegetables compared to conventional, and organic milk contains 60 percent more antioxidants and healthful fatty acids than conventional milk. Organic produce also contained higher levels of useful minerals. Of course there is variety within the results, but the research confirms an overall trend: organic fruit vegetables and milk are likely to contain more beneficial compounds. The study’s conclusive findings will be published some time this year, after being peer reviewed by academics across Europe.

The large-scale study in England strengthens the growing body of evidence showing the nutritional superiority of organic food. Earlier in 2007, several independent research projects showed that organic kiwi, tomatoes, peaches, and processed apples each had higher nutritional content than their non-organic counterparts. The kiwi study, from the University of California showed higher levels of vitamin C and antioxidants, and higher concentrations of minerals. The EU tomato study showed that organic tomatoes contained more fiber, vitamin C, beta-carotene, and flavonoids than conventional tomatoes. A 10-year University of California tomato study found double the flavonoids in organic tomatoes compared to conventional. The EU study of peaches found that organic production of peaches results in higher polyphenol content and positively impacts nutrition and flavor. Similarly, the EU study of processed apples found that organic apple puree contains more phenols, flavonoids, and vitamin C compared to conventional.

In previous years, studies have shown that switching to organic diets quickly reduces children’s exposure to dangerous toxic pesticides. Organophosphorus pesticides, not used in organic growing methods, have not been widely tested with regards to adverse health effects in children, but a number of studies have shown negative effects of pesticides on neurodevelopment and growth in young animals. Some correlation has been found in humans between parental exposure to pesticide with incidence of autism, birth defects, childhood brain tumors, and several varieties of cancer.

For years people have been choosing organic to reduce the possibility of consuming pesticides, to avoid eating irradiated or genetically modified foods, or for the purpose of protecting the environment. These reasons center around avoiding what is bad, potentially bad, or unknown about non-organic foods. Many of the people who have been choosing organic food tend to believe that there are additional health benefits to eating organic food, and now finally rigorous research is being conducted to confirm that. Sarah Aubry