General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: You remember that big anti-organic food study last week? Guess who funded it. [View all]haele
(12,646 posts)An unprocessed (other than washed) peach or asparagus spear will have the same basic amount of nutrients and pretty much close to the same baseline of healthiness whether it is grown organically or "conventionally".
Now,the increase occurrence of bacterial infestations, improper use of pesticides, fertilizer and/or genetic modification contamination may change that "healthiness factor", as does commercial handling and processing procedures, but that does not seem to be what the studies are looking at, they're looking at the "baseline" level of nutrition.
What's questionable is where on or in the fruit or vegetable they are sampling when looking for the nutritional value, and from where they collected the samples. Conventionally grown at the University is different than purchased from the local Albertson's. Even the difference between Organic and Conventional at the same store is different, as there is a commercial Organic produce agribusiness that still uses pesticides and fertilizer and many of the conventional processes to get large commercial yields to sell to processor.
So, yes, in those cases, there may not be as much a baseline nutritional difference as comparing the organic apple locally grown purchased from the farmer's market that was picked yesterday and the apple picked a week earlier, packed and shipped in from a Mott's commercial Walla-Walla orchard a thousand miles away or so.
A cored or internal sample will also show fewer differences than a sample from a slice that compares inner and outer layers equally
After all, in any study, it's all in what you focus on and how specific you are with the data from your artifacts. I've discovered that depending on the focus, the same data can be analyzed to come to a wider range of conclusions than most scientists want to admit. So while I'm not sold on the conclusion, I'm not totally opposed to what they concluded on a practical level. That's why studies need to be peer-reviewed.
Which I'm not sure has happened with this study yet.
Haele