March 20, 2008...9:57 pm
Major review of recent research confirms organic food more nutritious
The evidence continues to mount — organically raised plant-based foods are more nutritionally dense than conventionally grown food. A newly released, major review of research conducted over the last six years, concludes…
“Yes, organic plant-based foods are, on average, more nutritious in terms of their nutrient density for compounds validated by this study’s rigorous methodology.
“The significant margins in favor of organic food in several of the most important nutrients, and modest margins in favor of conventional samples for less important nutrients, strengthens the evidence supporting this conclusion.
“The average serving of organic plant-based food contains about 25% more of the nutrients encompassed in this study than a comparable-sized serving of the same food produced by conventional farming methods.”
The State of the Science Review (March 200 
New Evidence Confirms the Nutritional Superiority of Plant-Based Organic Foods, is published by The Organic Center. The Organic Consumers Association put out a nice summary of the report.
The scientific momentum is definitely building to confirm what most people would naturally suspect — that organic food is healthier for people. It is now getting more and more difficult for the critics of organic food to wave it off as a trend or purport that “there’s no evidence.” I’m sure Mr. Junk Science will find a way to spin it off. The evidence though is growing and it’s scientifically valid.
There’s an interesting saying that applies here — “absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence.” No one should understand that more than a scientist, yet the vast majority of ag researchers continue to scoff at organic and dismiss it out of hand, with the seemingly legitimizing excuse, “there’s no evidence.” Sometimes absence of evidence means absence of looking, a most unscientific methodology. Now that someone is actually looking, it appears there just might be some evidence after all. Go figure.
Seeing this attitude first hand at a major ag university never ceases to amaze me. The lack of willingness to challenge one’s own pre-conceived notions should be antithetical to a publicly funded research institution, a place where people are paid and protected in their pursuit of unconventional thinking for the sake of the public good. Now that evidence is mounting, research dollars devoted to organic from our health and ag research coffers should be liberally increased. As the public learns more, maybe people will start to wonder why this has remained such an understudied area for so long, and demand some common sense be returned to our food production system.
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