Is Eating Organic Worthwhile?
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There’s a new, big meta-study published recently that attempted to evaluate the benefits of organic food. Over 160 studies were initially looked at, but the researchers narrowed those down to 55 for the final evaluation, attempting to include only the best-designed work. The review encompassed 50 years of research. It was commissioned by the British Food Standards Agency, and carried out by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The headline conclusion was that organic food offered no health benefits. But lets look a little deeper. The report’s authors came to the “no benefit” conclusion based only on the nutritional value of the foods examined (produce, meat, dairy and eggs). That is, they found very little difference in the level of nutrients in organic vs. non-organic foods. There were some minor variations, such as a tendency for higher nitrogen and acid levels in the organic vegetables, but nothing that was considered significant for health. This is not particularly surprising, as nutritional analysis (how much vitamin C, iron, etc.) contained in a food has never really been categorized according to its growing environment. Of course, some heavy metals, for example, can show up in plants when they exist in the soil, but that is independent of the growing method. Perhaps it is actually something of a relief that the non-organic food most Westerners eat can provide good nutrition. (If only we were eating a good, balanced diet in the first place. Organic pork rinds really are not the answer.)
However, this study chose not to address other important issues. For example, there was no attempt to evaluate the possible long-term effects from residual pesticides. There is also no consideration of the environmental harm caused by modern non-organic commercial farming. For many people, reducing the environmental footprint of commercial farming is enough of a reason on its own to consider organic food. While there are other systematic improvements in cultivation and irrigation that could be made in non-organic farming, choosing organics makes a change now.
Besides a well-balanced diet, getting food that is ripe and fresh is more important nutritionally than organic vs. non-organic. That means buying more foods that are in season and perhaps grown in your own region. It really depends on the type of produce and how efficient the transportation system is for that particular food. Local isn’t necessarily better, even from an economic-environmental point of view: more fuel is consumed (per pound of food) in driving your four bags of groceries home in your car, than is used shipping 30,000 tons of fruit on a ship from South America.
So should you be eating organic? There may be a lot of good reasons to do so, but getting more vitamins and minerals from your food really not one of them. The good news is that, from a purely nutritional point of view, you don’t have to worry about your non-organic food leaving you malnutritioned.
