Organic - nutrition advantages?

More commentary on the FSA organic study from US Food Policy

Organic - healthier or not?

UK Food Safety Authority says organic is no healthier than non organic food.

The organic sector and academics criticize the methodology in the report.

An EU wide academic study coordinated by Carlo Leifert at Newcastle University found that levels of nutritionally desirable compounds, such as antioxidants and vitamins, were higher in organic crops, while levels of nutritionally undesirable compounds such as toxic chemicals, mycotoxins and metals such as cadmium and nickel, were lower in organic crops.

via The Guardian

Organic and food safety - II

According to an organic newsletter from Biofach

Conventionally grown food in Europe is still heavily contaminated with
pesticide residues. Of the 17,039 samples from monitoring programmes and
official food safety measures in Germany in 2007, only 39 % were not
contaminated. 57 % of all samples were contaminated up to the
permissible limit. 4.5 % of products from Germany, 5 % from other EU
member states and 9.5 % of fruit and vegetable samples from non-EU
countries were above the legally permitted limit. Right at the top of
the list in the “National Report on Pesticide Residues 2007” is paprika
powder, of which up to 80 % is contaminated with a cocktail of as many
as 30 different chemical residues.
Organic food contained pesticide residues much less frequently and in
smaller amounts than conventionally grown food, but as many as 0.9 % of
these products were also contaminated above the legal limits.

Dirty dozen - foods to avoid

A new version of the Dirty Dozen is published citing the crops to avoid for pesticide residues. Another boost for the organic sector. So much for all those plump sweet smelling peaches in my local market in the summer.

Would also be good to have an idea on workers's exposure to chemicals. Cotton is particularly intensive in its use of pesticides and is not listed here as it is a food crop.

Organic and food safety

Having an organic certification tells consumers that the food product has no pesticides used on it. Consumers also tend to think this means the food is safer. A recent food safety scandal (reported by the NY Times) of a Georgia organic peanut butter company highlights that this may not necessarily be the case.

Organic farming and climate change

1. The International Trade Centre and Swiss Research Institute for Organic Agriculture have published a study looking at the carbon sequestration benefits and lower emissions of organic agriculture.

2. Adrian Williams of Cranfield University finds:
Nitrous oxide is the single largest contributor to global warming potential (GWP) for most commodities, exceeding 80% in some cases.

Organic field crops and animal products generally consume less primary energy than non-organic counterparts owing to the use of legumes to fix N rather than fossil energy to make synthetic fertilisers. Poultry meat and eggs are exceptions, resulting from the very high efficiency of feed conversion in the non-organic sector.

Yields (t/ha) are lower for organic than for conventional production such that for a given amount of output more land is always required for organic production (65% to 200% extra).

Organic farming and food security in Africa

The UN Conference on Trade and Development issued a statement last week saying the organic agriculture is a promising food security option for Africa.

Organic agriculture which uses local resources, improves soil fertility and is environmentally friendly - is "equal or better than most conventional systems and more likely to be sustainable in the longer term". Demand for organic produce is also increasing worldwide, holding out "significant income possibilities for African organic farmers" and helping to speed progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. But the continent will have to overcome formidable challenges if it is to seize these opportunities, UNCTAD warns, including limited productive capacity, market access, government support, and certification.

Too many labels

Do you need 4 organic labels on a pot of jam?

In the picture you can see on the left the 2 blue EU organic logo (2 different languages). On the botton left you have the green AB label which in the national French organic logo and on the right you have the Carrefour supermarket chain's logo "Bio" showing that this is an organic product.

In the queue, if they could find space on the jar would potentially be a fair trade mark, a carbon label and a symbol saying the ingrediants werent airfreighted.

Organic farming in a Nairobi slum

You dont get many farms in the middle of slums let alone organic ones. Here in Kibera, Africa second largest slum after Soweto, a community of people started growing their own organic food. The mover behind this scheme was Su Kahumba, founder of Green Dreams an organic vegetable retailer in Nairobi.
Photo courtesy of Green Dreams

Organic fraud

With organic premia riding high the last few years, the temptation to make false claims about how green a product must be pretty strong.

This picutre is from a UK music festival I went to in 2007. I have my doubts that the vendors of this pizza really had organically certified ingredients (flour, tomatoes, olives, anchoives, pepperoni etc.) Just seems far fetched...I am not always convinced by street markets selling organic unless they are the producers themselves...even then it must be tempting to pick up a tray of produce from a wholesaler on the way to the market and mix it in with the good stuff.

Having said that very little fraud has ever come to light, suggesting that little relatively little takes place out of the US$50 billion market.

Stopping organic cotton in Uganda

An article from a newspaper this week in Uganda reports that President Mseveni has "banned" organic cotton from northern Uganda. In the last few years, organic cotton production has grown rapidly there due to overseas buyers clamouring for the stuff. According to Uganda's President, the main cotton buyer Dunavant has failed to provide the organic growers with sufficient organic pesticides making them vulnerable to crop failure. The government has zoned areas where organic must be grown. If cotton production takes place outside these areas, they will be declared "illegal". It is not clear exactly what support the government of Uganda provides to cotton farmers either in the zone or without. In general developing countries have very low levels of support for agricultural extension particularly since structural adjustment programmes began in the 1990s. It is therefore unclear why a government providing so little in the way of agricultural extension would discourage the private sector in this way.

Soil conservation 2

Covering soil is a major preoccupation for organic gardeners and farmers. Just as an organic garden in Europe will have green manures to protect soil and add fertility, this pineapple field in Uganda has mulches in between the rows. The farmer below hasnt put down a mulch as he hasn't found time. As a result he has loads of weeds to deal with which will reduce his yields. Because of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in his locality, labour is sparse and high cost.

Soil conservation and painful weeding

Soil conservation is very important! Without it, farmers on the steep slopes of Ugandan mountains will have nothing but rock to farm on. Organic does encourage soil conservation but not require it which seems a weakness to me. Here above Kesese, farmers dig gulleys to trap rainwater. This stops soils running away in the torrential rains. The pineapple farmer takes the same approach. He has seven children and is buying more land from his neighbour to plant more pineapples. He remarks that weeding is painful as he get spiked by the leaves and so asks for gloves and boots.

Paperwork

Organic involves a fair amount of paperwork. This means recording the names of all the farmers and mapping out the area. This process is called establishing an Internal Control System. Along comes the inspector and samples a small percentage of the hundreds of farmers in the ICS to check they aren't spraying chemicals. The ICS also gives a degree of traceability to the supply chain which buyers in Europe like...

Uganda - pineapples and poverty

Uganda is full of organic farms thanks to rich soils and direct airlinks to European markets. One of the most popular cash crops are pineapples. They are grown by smallholders with as little as one acre of land. These farmers face many challenges including pests and disease, drought, floods, declining profit margins and productivity. Organic farming requires farmers not to use agrochemicals and to build soil fertility with manures and intercropping. However, this can mean more labour, often in short supply in this one farm following an HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 80s and 90s. Knowledge about good agricultural practice is also in short supply not least due to a non functioning extension service in rural areas (like most of Africa). This has left barren hillside churning out cash crops with insufficient soil conservation measures. These measures include shade tree planting, manuring, intercropping and mulching. The organic encourages but does not require soil conservation measures - perhaps an achilles heel of organic?