Shock, horror, the newspapers are carrying headlines that say organic food is no more nutritional than non-organic food.
The reputable Food Standards Agency with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have conducted a study with 162 analyses and made the conclusion that organic food contains no additional nutritional value.
Whether there are exceptions I don’t know. Whether organic food produced by someone who cares gives more satisfaction than mass produced, chemically stimulated, processed and perfectly shaped food probably wasn’t in the equation.
I always thought organic farming was about having less in the food. Less chemicals that is. Less effect on our fellow creatures and less effect on our water supply etc. Less effect on the environment in general. I don’t think the study touched this.
I havn’t read the full report and it sounds lengthy but as a supporter in general of the theme of organic farming I think it’s limited scope misses the target. I’ve never bought organic food thinking it tasted better although I might think it does if it was bread baked in a bakery that cares and maybe makes the bread nice and full, not rubbery and light. I like my food to digest with a natural amount of roughage, why take out the roughage and then have to eat a pile of bran or take tablets to make your body work. Do I need the dye contained in some foods that a study last week shows is one of the few things that penetrates certain internal membranes so helping a new drug to cure nerve damage.
So please file the report under ‘blinkered studies’ and send the cheque from the taxpayer to the School of Tropical Medicine with a note of thanks. It’s not their fault they did what they were asked to do.