A recent paper presented a compelling review of the literature documenting the differences between organic and conventionally grown crops in their levels of various antioxidants, nutrients and toxins. The paper concluded that “concentrations of a range of antioxidants such as polyphenolics were found to be substantially higher in organic crops/crop-based foods… [and] the frequency of occurrence of pesticide residues was found to be four times higher in conventional crops, which also contained significantly higher concentrations of the toxic metal Cd [cadmium]”.

The paper is important, as it runs contrary to some earlier reviews which found no differences between organic and conventional, and the organic world is certainly happy about it. But I think this discussion misses the point. Any nutritional differences between organic and conventional apples, for example, would be trivial compared to the differences between apples and Apple Jacks. The most pressing nutritional problems (at least in societies where there are debates about organic vs inorganic) will not be solved by eating organic apples with their 19% higher levels of phenolic acids instead of conventional apples. The problem will be solved by getting people to eat organic or conventional apples instead of Apple Jacks and other such junk food. To quote Michael Pollan for the zillionth time, we need to “eat food, not too much, mostly plants”.

As much as possible, my wife and I try to feed our family food grown sustainably (and sometimes organic is the closest approximation to sustainable that we have), but the reasons are not related to nutrition. Rather, I do it for environmental/ecological reasons, and to support small farmers.

Hmm, so maybe that is the problem: I don’t like nutrition being used as a hook to promote organic food, because it is irrelevant, but without a direct personal perceived benefit there may not be enough consumers who will buy organic/sustainably grown foods to make it the dominant production system.

So I take it all back. Organic food is more nutritious, will boost your immune system, increase your sex appeal, and reverse premature balding. Woowoo, go organic go!