tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9437268.post7365005437227569186..comments2024-02-03T07:12:06.620-05:00Comments on U.S. Food Policy: Nutrition advantages of organic over conventional foodusfoodpolicyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17098394318544229984noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9437268.post-6019734604300257942009-08-04T16:19:58.337-04:002009-08-04T16:19:58.337-04:00Are the benefits really from organic production as...Are the benefits really from organic production as a whole or one or two specific practices that are used within organic production. I doubt any nutritional benefits could be derived from differing pest management practices, making me conclude that possible differences arise from the differing fertilization programs. There is something to be said for organic practices that "rebuild" soils, but the work is in progress to tease apart and identify the integral practices.The Almond Doctorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03363637176088915037noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9437268.post-21380335020335907802009-07-31T19:38:03.373-04:002009-07-31T19:38:03.373-04:00I'm very skeptical of studies such as this. So...I'm very skeptical of studies such as this. So many environmental factors impact the chemistry of plants that it appears completely meaningless to arbitrarily choose a number of "organic" plots to be compared to "conventional" plots. Size of the operation, amount of inputs, climate and soil all have critical influences, which I can't imagine many of these studies attempt to control for.Matt DiLeohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08602997050973123349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9437268.post-65678558276312796552009-07-31T10:38:33.179-04:002009-07-31T10:38:33.179-04:00"There are probably modest nutrient advantage..."There are probably modest nutrient advantages from organic production"<br /><br />which, in turn, are likely from the increased fertility of the soil as managed under organic systems. Soil health (or, conversely, degradation), whatever the system, is the important variable that will be overlooked in this controversy about which is better.<br /><br />On-line books on soil:<br /><b>Building Soils for Better Crops</b><br /><a rel="nofollow">http://www.sare.org/publications/bsbc/bsbc.pdf</a><br /><br /><b>The Soil Biology Primer</b><br /><a rel="nofollow">http://soils.usda.gov/SQI/concepts/soil_biology/biology.html</a><br /><br />IMO, two other books that deserve much more wide reading are Hillel's <b>"Out of the Earth: Civilization and the Life of the Soil"</b> and Montgomery's <b>"Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations"</b>.<br /><br />Somehow sometime, a switch focusing on soil health and maximizing it for a given location is crucial.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com