Is Organic Food More Nutritious?

Organic food is food that has been grown adhering to specific standards. There is evidence that such food is more nutritious and healthier to eat than food grown conventionally.

Synthetic pesticides are not allowed to be used in growing organic food. Use of pesticides that are plant-based is allowable, but only when absolutely necessary. Organic foods do not contain artificial preservatives or other additives.

Other processes that are used with conventional methods, such as irradiation, chemical ripening and genetic modification are also usually not part of organic farming methods.

Foods are labeled according to how organic they are, for example, foods that are totally organic will be labeled as such: 100% organic. To be labeled just organic, they need to be 95% organic. A product has to be 70% organic or more to be labeled made with organic ingredients.

Farming organically is considered to be easier on the environment as it does not release synthetic pesticides which can then cause damage to any surrounding animals or to the soil and water. Healthy ecosystems are encouraged, for one thing, organic farms use beneficial insects and birds to keep the numbers of pests low. These farms also consume less energy and produce less waste.

There has been some argument over whether organic farming produces less with an equal amount of land as conventional farming. However, when this is looked at across the globe, it is not the case. In developed countries, it is true. But when you factor in developing countries that can produce more with organic farming, as much or more could be produced on a global level if all farms adopted organic techniques.

The soil would appear to benefit from organic farming as well. Soil farmed organically contains more nutrients which are of benefit to the crops. This is partially due to the lack of chemicals. Also, crop rotation, which is generally used in organic farming, has been used to increase soil quality for centuries.

Food grown conventionally does not have the same nutrition that it once did. Food grown today, by whatever method, has less than the same item grown a century ago.

But there are studies showing that organically grown food has more nutrition than the same food grown by conventional methods. In addition, even after washing, produce grown conventionally still contains chemicals.

Studies regarding organic food are controversial. But it seems obvious that any amount of pesticide in food is not healthy. When you add the hormones that are often in conventionally grown meat, the argument for eating organic foods becomes even more compelling.

Is Organic Food More Nutritious in the news

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