People squirm when they think of the chemicals in our food. Herbicides coat carrots and potatoes. Pesticides work their way through oranges’ thick peels. Pigs and cows are fed hormones to make them grow faster.
This fear of chemicals in food has led to an increase of natural food stores in Ottawa. Supermarkets now stock organic fruit, vegetables, meat, and dairy. There are even organic gummy bears.
Yet a number of recent studies argue the only real difference between organic and regular food is the price. Academics remain divided over what nutritional benefits, if any, organic fruits and vegetables offer over conventional ones.
Researchers at Stanford University said organic produce does not contain more vitamins and minerals than conventional produce.
They reviewed over 200 studies that compared the nutrient levels of organic food to those of conventional food in September 2012, and found organic rarely contained more.
They also found organic produce is 30 per cent less likely to be contaminated with pesticides, but the level of pesticides in conventional food falls under the acceptable limits set by government regulations.
Studies like the one done at Stanford fail to mention how organic food beats out conventional food when it comes to other important nutrients, said plant scientist Martin Entz.
He heads a research team at the University of Manitoba that studies sustainable agriculture, including organic farming.
“What we’ve found is organic produce tend to have more micronutrients, plus recent European studies have shown that organically-produced foods contain higher levels of secondary plant metabolites such as phenols and antioxidants,” he said.
Micronutrients are vitamins and nutrients that are only required in small amounts for everyday life, according to the World Health Organization. Metabolites are substances essential for an organism’s metabolism or a particular metabolic process, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
When produced organically, organic milk and cheese are more likely to contain omega-3 fatty acids, which help the human metabolism, Entz said.
“The higher omega-3 content in organic animal products is the result of more forage or grass in the organic animal diet, something that is dictated by organic standards,” he said.
Organic farming is also much easier on the environment, he said. A 2005 study showed how organic farms in Europe scored higher in almost all biodiversity categories than conventional farms, he said.
“The way agriculture has been going since the beginning of the so-called Green Revolution [or] the introduction of chemical farming, is that nature has been either ignored or subdued. This is no way to have a sustainable food system,” Entz said.
Conventional farms use about 30 per cent more energy than organic ones, he said. Nitrogen-based fertilizers account for about half of the energy use in conventional farming.
Manufacturing and transporting synthetic nitrogen to farms requires massive amounts of oil.
“Organic farms get most of the nitrogen they need by fertilizing their fields with legume plants, which draw nitrogen from the atmosphere in a natural process. Animal manures are also an important part of the organic soil fertilization plan,” Entz said.
Eating organic food can help people live healthier lives, said Phil Bosloy, manager of The Wheat Berry, an all-organic grocery store in Ottawa.
About 20 years ago a doctor recommended he go on a macrobiotic diet, he said.
The Wheat Berry sold the things he needed for his diet of whole grains, vegetables, and soy products. He was so impressed with the store and its employees that he asked for a job.
“When I started to eat organic I found that it was a lot tastier. I was really startled at the difference between regular sweet potatoes and organic,” he said.
He said his new organic diet helped him “take control” of his health again.
“A lot of customers would just start chatting with me about how they regained their health through whole foods,” he said.
He said he also found the presence of pesticides and herbicides in his food unsettling.
“I found that would be probably something that we would carry around with us in our bodies and if it wasn’t dealt with properly it would just become a residue. Your body would be compromised by those added, unnatural things that you’ve taken in with your food.”
The heavy use of pesticides in her food convinced Carleton student Emilie Caron-Lewis to start eating organic years ago.
“It’s chemical-free. You feel the food is more fresh,” she said.
She became vegetarian at the age of 13 and a regular customer of The Wheat Berry. She has worked at the store for three years.
Now a second-year psychology student, she said her employee discount makes eating organic food easy to fit in her budget. If she didn’t work at a natural food store, she said she would still try to make organic foods at least a portion of her diet.
“I would have to make choices: one week maybe I would get organic, and the next, I wouldn’t. It’s too much for the average student,” she said.
She said her friends have to pay the full price for organic produce; they will buy it when they can afford it, and eat conventional food when they cannot.
They also adhere to the “dirty dozen” list, she said. Every year the Environmental Working Group publishes a list of foods with the highest and lowest pesticide residue based on data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration.
In 2012, the dirty dozen included apples, celery, and bell peppers.
“But then there are the ‘clean fifteen’ where if you don’t buy them organic, it’s not the end of the world, because they usually don’t use a lot of pesticides,” Caron-Lewis said.
According to the list, onions, sweet corn and pineapples were the “clean fifteen,” with the lowest pesticide residue.
People can buy regular-priced onions and corn, and spring for organic produce when they want to buy one of the dirty dozen, she said.
“They don’t buy organic all the time. It’s more like a treat.”
