From David Lort-Phillips
By resorting to scientific criteria in their efforts to prove that organic
foods are more nutritious than conventional ones
(11 August, p 15), the
supporters of organic farming lay themselves open to sceptics who can quite
easily use science to demonstrate that the differences in mineral and vitamin
content are too small to be significant.
As a family that both produces and enjoys eating organic food, the important
differences are perhaps more subjective, but no less real. Our experience of
eating vegetables—in particular root crops—and to some extent eggs
and white meat, is that the flavour and texture are noticeably superior. This
may be for the reason flagged up by Shane Heaton, the Soil Association
nutritionist: they contain more dry matter.
Even if consumers can’t agree on this point, there is a lot of weight behind
the argument that the farming and land-management methods within an organic
system protect soils, encourage biodiversity, help create a more varied and
attractive landscape, and provide better animal welfare.
Pembrokeshire
