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Side-by-side comparisons of organic and conventional strawberry farms and their fruit found the organic farms produced more flavorful and nutritious berries while leaving the soil healthier and more genetically diverse.
Commercial organic farms have better fruit and soil, lower environmental impact, study finds
Seeded on Thu Sep 2, 2010 8:25 PM EDT
Article Source: Science Daily- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (7)
"Our findings have global implications and advance what we know about the sustainability benefits of organic farming systems," said John Reganold, Washington State University Regents professor of soil science and lead author of a paper published in the peer-reviewed online journal, PLoS ONE. "We also show you can have high quality, healthy produce without resorting to an arsenal of pesticides."
- 4 votes
#1 - Thu Sep 2, 2010 8:26 PM EDTAmong their findings:
- The organic strawberries had significantly higher antioxidant activity and concentrations of ascorbic acid and phenolic compounds.
- The organic strawberries had longer shelf life.
- The organic strawberries had more dry matter, or, "more strawberry in the strawberry."
- Anonymous testers, working at times under red light so the fruit color would not bias them, found one variety of organic strawberries was sweeter, had better flavor, and once a white light was turned on, appearance. The testers judged the other two varieties to be similar.
- 3 votes
#2 - Thu Sep 2, 2010 8:31 PM EDTAside from the issue of toxins in food (which are more common-- and more potentially dangerous than many people realize)-- organic food is more nutritious.
Why? Because naturally plants produce "phytochemicals". These protect the plants against insects, disease etc. And many are also beneficial to human health:
Phytochemicals are chemical compounds that occur naturally in plants, such as beta-carotene. The term is generally used to refer to those chemicals that may affect health, but are not yet established as essential nutrients
Some of these are sophisticated chemicals-- wmmuch is still being learned about them.
Some examples-- Beta-Carotene. Lycopene. Lutein. Resveratrol.
- 3 votes
#3 - Sun Sep 26, 2010 12:52 PM EDTWhoops-- I forgot to mention the important part: While the plants make these to protect themselves agaisnt insects and disease and other pests, in the case of Non-organic crops, the growers do the job for the plants-- they use chemicals agaisnt these pests. So-- the plants don't need to make them-- or make fewer amounts.
But for organic plannts, since the farmers don't provide the protect via chemicals (many of which are dangerous to humans), the plants have to make more phyto-chemicals themselves. Which is why Organic plants have more-- and are therefore richer in anti-oxidants and other beneficial nutrients!
- 3 votes
it a no brainer really I wonder how many scientiffic tesy it took for them to figure this out and even bigger question how much has it cost in life, and money?
- 2 votes
#4 - Sun Sep 26, 2010 8:32 PM EDTGood seed, 007! Having done some organic gardening from time to time, I really can't argue against anything in this article. We had the best strawberries and cantaloupes for three counties. We even had a few grapevines that, while not really producing grapes all that tasty, made for fantastic preserves. You haven't lived until you've had organic Scuppernong jam on a hot buttermilk biscuit!
- 1 vote
#5 - Mon Sep 27, 2010 5:48 AM EDTI try to buy everything organic. The only thing I really don't like that is organic is the peanut butter.
- 1 vote
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