Organic or not? It all depends on your pocket, new research shows

• Organic crops are not any healthier and that eating them is a lifestyle choice for people who can afford them
• Report: Most fruits and vegetables sold in Nairobi are contaminated with high levels of pesticide residue.
• Koan believes some farmers may grow crops in conventional ways and pass them off as organic.

Described as the first study ever to look at the retention of minerals and trace elements, animals were fed on a diet consisting of crops grown using three different cultivation methods in two seasons.

In the first method carrots, kales, mature peas, apples and potatoes were grown on soil which had a low input of nutrients using animal manure and no pesticides, except for one organically approved product on kale only.

The second involved applying low-input of nutrients using animal manure, combined with use of pesticides, as much as allowed by regulation.

The last comprised a combination of a high input of nutrients through mineral fertiliser and pesticides as legally allowed was used.
Interestingly, this study was supported by the Danish Research Centre for Organic Farming, a possible indication that there was no deliberate bias.

The crops were grown on the same or similar soil on adjacent fields at the same time and so experienced the same weather conditions and all were harvested at the same time.

The organic vegetables were grown on an established organic soil. After harvest, wrote the researchers, results showed no differences in the levels of major and trace elements in the fruits and vegetables grown using the three methods.

They did not stop there; the produce from the organically and conventionally grown crops was then fed to animals over a two-year period, during which the intake and excretion of various minerals and trace elements were measured.

According to the study, there was no difference in the retention of the elements regardless of how the crops were grown.

“No systematic differences between cultivation systems representing organic and conventional production methods were found across the five crops so the study does not support the belief that organically grown foodstuffs generally contain more major and trace elements than conventionally grown foodstuffs,” Dr Bügel had told the Daily Mail in an interview.

Research on the subject has been going on for almost 30 years and this study, no matter how credible it is, is not going to put the debate to bed.

However, the Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (Koan) has dismissed the study, saying that the use of organic plots was wrong because the researchers should have used the conventional type.

“The produce in this study was analysed as dry matter, whereas most people will consume fruits and vegetables fresh,” says Ms Wanjiru Kamau, the Koan lobbying and advocacy manager.

“It is common knowledge that important nutrients are lost during processing.”

She also criticises the team for what she calls contradicting another study it conducted earlier indicating that animals fed on an organic diet were actually healthier than those feed on a conventional one.

Koan also argues that, while the developed world has managed to keep pesticide residue in foods at a legal level, the situation is not the same in Kenya.