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The Savvy Shopper's Guide to: Organic Food

Hey everyone! I am going to begin a 4 post series called the Savvy Shoppers Guide. It will include facts on organic, locally grown, all natural, and free range products that you buy. This way you will be able to make savvy shopping decisions when you purchase groceries! You will also be able to understand why we have conventional agriculture and why we need to continue with conventional ag even if you choose to opt for non-conventional. Today we will be covering organic food items.

So first I would like to say that I do not believe that there are any food safety advantages that come from producing organic foods. In fact, in 2002 Alex Avery, research director for the Center of Global Food Issues stated that natural and organic foods are eight times more likely to be recalled than conventionally produced foods1. The USDA has found that drug residues in ALL beef, not just organic, to be virtually zero2. Of course all foods from animals naturally have hormones. While organically raised animals are never given implants or added hormones, any traceable amount of hormones in meat are naturally occurring. You can read my post about hormones here.  However, marketers have claims that organic foods are safer than conventional foods. It causes confusion to shoppers when organic food is marketed against conventional foods.

Let’s talk about sustainability. Sustainability is such an important thing to consider today. Whether you are interested in being green, want to feed the world, or want your children’s children to be able to have the food and world that we have today, then you have to consider sustainability. To be sustainable food must be economically efficient, socially responsible, and ecologically sound. Forbes magazine wrote in an article that organic food cannot live up to these standards.  Have you noticed that organic food is expensive? It’s expensive in stores because it’s expensive to produce. Producing organic food also contributes to greater pollution of groundwater and generally has a lower crop yield3. To produce conventional food, more technologically advanced equipment is involved which makes production faster, cheaper, and bigger. Organic production is much smaller, more expensive, and very slow. The animals and even crops take longer to grow and they almost never reach the sizes that conventionally produced products do.

Okay, we’ve all heard that organic food is healthier. But let’s debunk that myth. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition did a study in 2009 that found no evidence of a difference in nutrient content between organic and conventional food4. The American Council of Science and Health analyzed a pro-organic report by Charles Benbrook and found that the data was selective, and some of the data had not been peer reviewed and Dr. Joseph D. Rosen found that conventional products are actually 2% more nutritious than the organic products5. But marketers and the public latched on to that faulty paper which changed the way people shopped. Good thing we cleared that up right?!

I hope you enjoyed this first post of the series, and I will answer any questions you have! You can also read the guidelines for organic food production and handling at http://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/organic-standards

1.       “Natural, organic foods eight times more likely to suffer recalls, study says.” Murphy, Dan. Meatingplace. June 12, 2013. Accessed January 9, 2016.
2.       “Conventional, Natural, and Organic Beef: No Scientific Differences.” National Livestock and Meat Board. 1995. Accessed Nov. 9 2015.
3.       “Why Organic isn’t Sustainable.” Miller, Henry L. and Cornett, Richard. Forbes. November 2014. Accessed Nov. 9 2015.
4.       “Nutritional Quality of Organic Foods: A Systemic Review.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. July 2009. Accessed Nov. 9 2015
5.       “Scientists Debunk Myth Of Organic Nutritional Superiority.” Kava, Ruth. American Council on Science and Health. July 2008. Accessed January 9, 2016.


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