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• January 24, 2010 11:03 a.m.

  Here is an article Comparing composition of Organically and Conventionally grown foods http://nutraprointl.com/2009/08/28/comparison-of-composition-of-organically-and-conventionally-grown-foods/ I hope this helps.

  - Rex

• January 9, 2010 12:26 a.m.

  Hi and thanks for the blog.It was an enjoyable reading.I also use organic foods only for its purity and the quality to fight against the pestisides.

  - Francois

• January 5, 2010 1:29 a.m.

  OMG the chemicals and pesticides allowed in our food let alone the gmo's that are becoming the norm after all the animal testing done is unbelievable! It is no wonder that there are so many new cases of food allergies, auto immune problems and the like. If we would stand up as a country and demand organic it would change. That is what they did in Europe. And it only took about 5% of the people refusing to buy contaminated products to stop the gmo's! We worry so much about the environment when we are putting poison in our bodies! We must do something. Watch the movie Food Inc. for a glimpse of what is happening. YES ORGANIC!

  - Carrie

• November 2, 2009 6:35 p.m.

  Listening to the Mayo Clinic give out "health advice" is like the fox telling the chickens how safe they're going to be when he takes over their "care"! Seriously, has anybody here looked at the chemical exposure that pesticides, herbicides, etc. represent each year to our environment? Answer: 5 BILLION POUND$ WORLDWIDE EACH YEAR!! That is a STAGGERING NUMBER! http://theviewspaper.net/five-billion-pounds-of-pesticides/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pesticides_in_the_United_States In the 1st article above, it was mentioned that when you eat a standard-grown apple, you can be eating as many as 30 DIFFERENT pesticides, etc.! No Thanks! I'll stick with the Organic even if it doesn't look as perfect. I'd rather not ingest chemicals that NOBODY knows what the full ramifications are!! PLUS, we can now measure pesticides, etc. in ALL of our rivers and streams. Maybe that's why our fish & other aquatic creatures have such problems in the Pacific NW! Pesticides, etc. probably explains the DEAD ZONES that the experts "just don't know why the happen!". Gee, could it be the pesticides, fertilizers, etc. from the rivers running into the oceans? We're being poisoned so MANY ways in the USA it is INEXCUSABLE! Even PRESCRIPTION DRUGS are being found in our water! What do DRUGS do to fish, etc.? NOBODY KNOWS! Thus ORGANIC is the better way to go. We can STOP poisoning our water, the Earth, and thus ourselves!

  - Eugene

• November 2, 2009 11:00 a.m.

  You never know what's going on either way. My wife and I buy a mix or "standard" and "organic" foods, but we base on it's taste not hype. This last year we decided to try growing some of our own fruits and veggies. The results are great and all they need is water, sun, and dirt.

  - Chris

• October 10, 2009 10:01 p.m.

  Yes, but nutritionally better or not, I would much rather avoid consuming the harmful chemicals in pesticides and their residues because who knows what kind of long term detrimental effects they will have.

  - Melanie

• October 8, 2009 1:51 p.m.

  You have got to be kidding. These ladies need to go back to their chemistry class. Look at the side effects of these chemicals and READ the labels or MSDATA sheets. What about chemicals sprayed in corn that they know helps cause more problems with sugar diabeties? These chemcials are NOT tested on small children or women carrying babies. WHY does the US take more of their share of medical bills compared to to other developed countries? Why has my bill gone down from 1000 every two months for migraines to a big ZERO just be switching to mostly organic? Come on.. politics over- you need to research more?

  - Nojo

• September 8, 2009 6:55 p.m.

  To Fred, It’s really hard to take you seriously. You come off as ranting. For instance you misspell Nobel prize, which makes me think you’re either uneducated and/or didn’t think before you spoke. Either way, its concerning towards your point. Fred you also go on a rant about how biased organic representatives are. Have you heard of Monsanto Company, Fred? The company spent $8,831,120 for lobbying in 2008. That’s just one company. All organic representatives together are barely spending that kind of money to lobby. Advantage genetically engineered seeds and bovine growth hormones.

  - Dan

• August 29, 2009 11:15 p.m.

  Looks like the people that are voting for "Non Organic" wins on this blog. I would re-read the 2 post by Fred. Thanks Fred. Organic is not all cracked up to be what you think it is. To many people buy into the "Big Pharma" conspiracy theories. Grow up people.

  - Angelo

• August 27, 2009 8:03 a.m.

  I avoid organic foods for fear of germs, also i know that 29 chemicals may still be officially added to so called organic foods.Most such foods are not same as we perceive it to be.

  - sunil

• August 26, 2009 4:12 p.m.

  I buy organic foods to reduce the amount of pesticides, herbicides, and hormones that are put into my body. I feel a lot better since I started using almost all organic foods. I grow my own blueberries, tomatoes and squash.

  - Louise

• August 26, 2009 1:33 p.m.

  Would that those referring to Nobel prize winners would recognize the difference between Nobel and noble.

  - Paul

• August 26, 2009 11:12 a.m.

  I buy organic foods because I do not want pesticides on my food. I also buy grassfed meats so I do not get the hormones from which the animals are given.

  - Janet

• August 26, 2009 10:26 a.m.

  That is awesome Erica. Kudos to you for doing your part and helping to keep the chemicals off the farmers and keeping communities caring and in touch with one another. This is where the world needs to go and it all starts with one person at a time, one family at a time. Peace

  - Angela

• August 26, 2009 2:22 a.m.

  I get my organic food from a local supplier where I know the food is picked the day before it's delivered to me and I am also supporting people are from very poor areas and now earn better wages than they would working on large scale farms. (Evidence I have seen with my own eyes) There is a huge difference in the taste of my local organic veggies than the stuff in the supermarkets, even the organic produce there. The carrots and greens are so rich in pigments (which contain the carotenes and other important nutrients) that my braun stick blender gets stained with the colour.... this doesn't happen with non-organic veg. I'm more interested in supporting farms where people are paid well, their labourers are not exposed to harmful chemicals themselves and supporting my local farming community. Buying organically the way I do now is fulfilling those demands and working out cheaper for me too.

  - Erica

• August 25, 2009 5:34 p.m.

  I think some people have their heads buried in the sand. I am not saying that we should eat all organic foods, because I for one have to watch our spending. But the fact is that I would buy more if I had the cash. I do buy what I can and love Whole Foods Markets, I wish we had one nearer to us. And as for no taste, I would have thought that about 5 years ago, they have come a long way to make it better. I know that eating better might keep us healthier. So Fred unbury head and be realistic. *Jea*

  - Jean

• August 25, 2009 9:56 a.m.

  I love how some of the people on this blog feel like all the scientists from "governments" are actually looking out for humanities best interests. WoW! Universities are heavily funded by Pharmaceutical Companies!! Pharmaceutical companies also create the garbage chemicals that end up in our soil and poor animals. We vote for our country and world by the products that we purchase everyday, not just the food. But by buying strictly organic this is actually making a statement that one person does actually care about the earth. Also alot of the companies that produce and wholesale organics are also doing what they can to limit their impact on the planet in other ways than just growing organics. Like I said just to Dis organics because some scientist or scientists have proven it is no different seems to me to be very narrow minded. I was a child once and when I can remember being concerned about picking up garbage and not littering at the young age of 5 or 6 yrs. of age (I'm 47) I new there was something wrong with "contamination" of the planet and I continued throughout my life to realize that the earth is a living breathing organism that houses us. I would like to think that my future generations can enjoy the beauty and all that the earth can provide for us. Really to me its a No Brainer. Maybe I'm just a dumb "non nobel prize winner scientist" but I live my life the best I can by "Being the Change I Wish To See In The World"

  - Angela

• August 24, 2009 9:59 p.m.

  This is a great review article, but its findings did not reflect the limitations of its methods. 1) it only considered the "nutritional" differences of organic/conventional produce in the short-term (eating organic over one's lifetime or eating conventional over one's lifetime may have an impact -- they did state "minimal-moderate nutritional differences). 2) they didn't review the health effects of pesticide/chemical use on conventional produce vs. organic. I think to say that eating organic has no nutritional advantage (as you do) is misleading. For some products (like tomatoes, berries, beef) organic is likely superior. An organic orange may not provide more Vitamin C, but an organically grown tomato might have higher levels of lycopene. See my blog post here for closer analysis: http://veritashealth.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/organic-questioned/

  - Kate

• August 24, 2009 9:13 a.m.

  I switched to buying organic products because I had an allergic reaction to something that was never determined. I found the organic vegetables and fruit tasteless and have now returned to buying regular fruit and vegetables.

  - Karen

• August 21, 2009 2:14 p.m.

  I've never thought the nutritional info would be different for organic verses non-organic foods. The reason why I would choose organic would be to avoid getting all the extra chemicals associated with non-organic foods. There should have been something on PLU codes in here. Like how to tell the different codes apart: http://blog.calorie-help.com/2009/08/03/fruit-and-vegetable-plu-codes/

  - Ken

• August 19, 2009 4:04 p.m.

  Another note on "The Organic Center". I just took a look at their "scientific and technical advisory committee" -- out of 28 people only a handful (5) have any legitimate scientific credentials. The vast majority either work for private companies that have a vested interest in the success or failure of the organic market, or they work for pro-organic institutes. In one case they have someone's credentials listed as "organic crop farmer". When you look her up you see she also owns a company that sells organic feed and seed! These are the people generating the garbage coming from the Organic Center!

  - Fred in NH

• August 19, 2009 2:46 p.m.

  A lot of the misinformation being spread about phony benefits of organic (including right here in these comments) comes from the "The Organic Center". I encourage anyone interested in just what a crock of baloney organic is to visit their website and have a look at their list of board members -- Two top executives at Whole Foods and another from Dean foods (owner of Horizon Organics). Another from the "Aurora Organic Dairy". Another from "Grimmway/Cal-Organic Farms", and another from "organic valley". By my count, I only saw one legitimate scientist on the entire board.

  - Fred in NH

• August 19, 2009 2:36 p.m.

  The 1,333 organic farmer-owners of Organic Valley are discouraged that the media continues to publish biased and outdated information regarding the healthful benefits of organic food such as the recent UK Food Standards Agency's report referred in this blog post. We urge people to read the rebuttals put forth by The Organic Center and Rodale Institute--scientists, nutritionists, even Prince Charles have responded with their concerns about this report. It is time to demand that our media outlets take a more balanced approach to reporting on our food and agricultural systems. Organic is a small and relatively new industry but is also one of the few agricultural production models that have answers to a broken food system. In addition, according to the Rodale Institute, organic farming methods and soil reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and remove more carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere than conventional agriculture thus lessening the impact of global climate change. Rodale reports that if we transitioned all of America's farm acres to organic practices, it would be the equivalent of taking 217 million cars, or 88% of the nation's cars, off the road. For more information on this issue, please visit: http://ov.coop/1c

  - OrganicValley

• August 19, 2009 1:58 p.m.

  While we acknowledge that there are differences in soil types throughout the country, our research shows that on average, organic fruits and vegetables are 25% higher in 11 key nutrients and contain 30% higher levels of antioxidants compared to conventional fruits and vegetables--a statistically relevant difference. The FSA report completely ignores the risks associated with exposure to toxic synthetic pesticide residues in conventional food and included research materials considered outdated and statistically problematic by the research community. Furthermore, the United Nations has released a number of reports that say conclusively that organic agriculture contributes to better food security and has 80% higher yields than conventional agriculture in developing countries and therefore organic can feed the world with less harmful impact on human health, communities and the environment. When it comes to organic agriculture, yes, we acknowledge that organic farmers use mechanized equipment, however they do not use petroleum based inputs such as toxic synthetic pesticides, herbicides and nitrogen fertilizers, thus organic agriculture uses 30% less energy inputs on average than conventional agriculture. For more information, please visit www.organic-center.org.

  - TheOrganicCenter

• August 19, 2009 12:31 p.m.

  Angie, of course I agree with you that there are areas in which modern agricultural practices are having a negative impact on the environment, but do you have any idea what the alternative is? Nobel Prize winner Dr. Norman Borgaug estimates that if we converted every acre of arable land on the planet to crop land (this would include clear-cutting the entire Brazilian rain forest) AND we used all human feces as fertilizer, we could maybe feed 2/3rds of the world's population organically. You see the problem with this?

  - Fred in NH