Sources: Ecowatch.com; The Guardian.com
More nutritional antioxidants and far fewer toxic pesticides: those are the results of a comprehensive meta-analysis on organic foods published in the British Journal of Nutrition…by Carlo Leifort, PhD, at England’s Newcastle University.
(T)he analysis is a scientific rebuttal to a previous Stanford University review published in 2012, which found that there was little difference between the nutritional content of organic food over conventionally grown produce.
For many, news of higher nutritional content in organic foods is simply another benefit of buying into a system that eschews toxic pesticides, treats animals with care and protects farmworkers and the surrounding environment.
Both the Stanford and Newcastle studies found pesticide residues four times more frequently on conventional crops than on organic produce, (and) found there to be fewer pesticides in organic products.
Pesticide exposure, even at low level residues like those found on food, has been linked to a wide range of adverse impacts wildlife and humans, particularly children. In 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement advising parents to choose organic in order to avoid pesticide exposure.
Although eating organic provides immense benefits over chemically-intensive food production systems, it is critically important that consumers continue to pressure the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Organic Program to maintain organic integrity.
(For instance), (i)n order to defend organic standards from changes that would weaken public trust, the organization Beyond Pesticides launched the Save Our Organic campaign.
Consumers can take action to ask their (Congressional) representatives, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, and organic companies to support…a rigorous open process that holds its standards accountable to input and direction from those who produce and purchase organic food.
Beyond Pesticides recently filed a petition to the USDA to restore the authority of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). The agency mistakenly reclassified the NOSB as a time-limited advisory board, despite its creation as an independent authority by Congress under the Organic Foods Production Act.
