Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living: 5 Reasons to Buy Organic Food

  CORE TRUTHS
A Book Review

Have you ever been challenged by someone about why to buy organic produce? If you’re like me, you can rattle off some good solid answers pretty quickly, but when they demand scientific reasoning you might not be able to cite research studies so readily.

The Organic Center has done this homework for us!

Their mission statement reads, ‘To generate credible, peer reviewed scientific information and communicate the verifiable benefits of organic farming and products to society.’

And they’ve done an excellent job of it so far. This non-profit was founded in 2002 by leaders in the organic food industry. Among their extremely impressive list of Board Members is Dr. Andrew Weil. I would encourage you to go and see this list of power-house organic industry experts and scientists.

Listed high among its goals, is to disseminate information and promote awareness and understanding to the general public about the benefits of organic agriculture.

One of the ways in which they’re achieving this goal is through Core Truths: Serving up the Science Behind Organic Agriculture. It is based on a compilation of research and is boiled down to some simple and easy-to-understand (or convey as it were) facts.

Here are 5 ‘core truths’ or reasons to buy organic foods:

1. Organic fruits and vegetables provide 30% higher levels of antioxidants
   Even our crazy government agrees that antioxidants are powerful agents of good health. According to this book, ‘seeking out organic produce and processed fruits and vegetables will increase antioxidant intake by about 30 percent, compared to produce grown on otherwise similar conventional farms’.
2. Abnormal neurodevelopment in children can be caused or made worse by prenatal and early life exposures to pesticides and chemicals that contaminate our food
   Core Truths states that, ‘Kids eat more food than adults per pound of body weight, and a less varied diet, so when a child consumes food that contains residues, the does they receive is typically much higher than when adults consumer the same food‘. Good point . . . not to mention the general bio-vulnerability of babies and small children that is well documented and reiterated in this book.
3. Pesticide residue in conventional produce still very high
   The USDA’s Pesticide Data Program (PDP) over the past decade has found one or more pesticide residue in 75 to 80 percent of the conventional produce tested – 90% or more in conventional apples, peaches, pears and strawberries. AHHHHHH!
4. It really does taste better!
   Here’s a new one: Organoleptic Quality – the term relating to sensory properties and quality attributes of a specific food. hmmm. All that to explain that while there are quite a few studies stating that taste and organoleptic quality of organic versus conventional foods find few differences, there are new studies being done and the majority of them report organic produce is tastier. Here’s an interesting statistic from the book, ’43 percent of consumers choosing organic food do so because of “better taste”.’
   
5. Organic farming fights climate change and cuts energy usage/costs
   Here’s a stunning statistic: By increasing US organic food consumption to 10% by 2010 we will eliminate 2.9 billion barrels of imported oil annually! Kids, that is per year!

Core Truths, has many more great reasons and easty-to-understand interpretations of recent research.

Did I mention it is a really beautifully designed book? All the images are from istockphoto.com. It is a great book to have around for reference, but it looks good on the coffee table too!

Other GO blog to visit:

Four More Ways to Buy Organic without Breaking the Budget
Budget Stretching Advice for Organic Foods
Are Organic Standards Being Diluted?