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Annotated Bibliography

Organic Foods

Shelby Whitfield
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1103
February 17, 2016

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Robinson, Lawrence, Jeanne Segal, Ph.d., and Robert Segal, M.A. "Organic Foods:
Understanding The Benefits Of Organic Food And What The Different Labels Really
Mean". Helpguide.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
This website relays a wide range of information on organics and the factors that play
a role in organic foods. This website discusses both sides of the argument of organic
advantages and disadvantages vs. conventional advantages and disadvantages. It
opens up a wide variety of topics that one can choose from, as well as discusses the
travel time and freshness of local produce. Robinson, Segal Ph.D. and Segal M.A.
provide examples of fruits and vegetables where the organic label matters most and
the non-organic fruits and vegetables with low pesticide levels. The authors also
provide definitions such as cage-free, grass-fed, and free-range that explain how and
why they are used in organic farming. Overall, this was a very informational website
that touched on all factors of organics and conventional foods. The authors showed no
bias and kept the article solely informative, exhibiting to the audience how organics
work and whats involved in the process. I will most definitely use this website due to
the amount of credible information it holds. In addition, I think that this source is very
trustworthy and a great resource to use when writing an informative paper on a topic
such as this.

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"Organic Food Nutrition; Care Farming; 4X4 Damage". BBC, 2016. TV programme.
This government podcast, BBC, discusses if organic food is really healthier for you or
if its just irrelevant information that is relayed to the public. It talks about a new
study that claims that organic food is nutritionally different from conventional
produce. The study shows that there are substantial differences in fat composition in
organic and conventional produce. The most important finding was that organic milk
and meat contain about 50 percent more omega-3 fatty acids than conventional milk
and meat. Scientists found that conventional meats contained undesirable saturated
fatty acids and organic milk contained antioxidants and had lower concentrations in
iodine, a valuable mineral. A controversial topic that came into play during the
broadcast was that the actual effect of the omega-3 fatty acids in the whole diet would
be quite small compared to the original reaction to the amount of omega-3 fatty acids
in the organic milk. There is definitely bias in this broadcast due to the different
people the broadcaster talked to; Kat Gram spoke to different scientists and
professionals that have dealt and still continue to deal with the science behind
organics. Unfortunately, this broadcast really didnt have much use to me due to all of
the bias. I felt that it wasnt very informative and it was just a controversial matter
over one fact that scientists had found. I might mention this in my paper somewhere,
but I wouldnt rely on it for useful information.

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Hall, McKenzie. Organic Really Matters. Environmental Nutrition 36.1 (2013): 1-6.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
This academic article examines whether or not organic foods are better for you. The
article discusses what areas of food to go organic in and what areas of food to save
your money and buy conventional grown foods in. For example, there is a Clean
Fifteen and a Dirty Dozen. The Clean Fifteen includes avocado, mushrooms,
pineapples, grapefruit, and mangoes, while the Dirty Dozen includes blueberries,
apples, cucumbers, spinach, and strawberries. The difference is, when looking at the
Clean Fifteen, we are able to see that each item produces a thicker skin to protect the
actual fruit from pesticides, while the Dirty Dozen shows fruits and vegetables with a
much more thin skin that cant protect the nutrients inside from pesticides. The article
also touches on the cost of organic foods and if they really are worth it. It also
provides recent studies that have been released to the public where they have found
more vitamin C in organically grown crops vs. conventionally grown crops. The
article revealed little bias and added professional quotes that furthered the article and
helped prove different points of why organics are and arent more healthy for you. I
will definitely use this article because it showed two sides and proved them. The
article came from a credible source and provided credible information that was
extremely useful to the discussion of organics.

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Greene, Catherine. "USDA ERS - Organic Agriculture". Ers.usda.gov. N.p., 2016. Web.
12 Mar. 2016.
This government website, United States Department of Agriculture, reviews how
organic farming has been increasing over the years and how organic produce has
expanded in U.S. food sales. It explains the fact that the consumer demand for organic
produce and foods has increased dramatically, showing double-digit growth, giving
more farmers employment. Price is continuously touched on throughout the article
and examines the idea that organic food is primarily priced higher than conventional
produce and foods. USDA has a certain goal to increase the number of certified
organic operations and expand programs for organic producers and handlers. Since
this website is created by the government, the article is very credible and has no bias
whatsoever. The article shows facts and goals that this area of the government has
agreed upon. The government seems to have an interest in this area of agriculture and
it seems that its not only nutritional but also profitable. I think that this article will
come to some use for my topic. There are certain factors that were touched on more in
this article that will be useful to me like profitability and price of organics, as well as
expansion and plans for the future of organics.