(From NaturalNews) Organic produce is nutritionally superior to so-called "conventional" produce, a ccording to a comprehensive review conducted by researchers from

the University of Aix-Marseille for the French food agency (AFSSA) and published in the journal Agronomy for Sustainable Development. "This critical literature review indicates that organic agriculture, as develope d until now, has the potential to produce high-quality products with some releva nt improvements in terms of anti-oxidant phytomicronutrients, nitrate accumulati on in vegetables and toxic residue levels," the researchers wrote. To be recognized as "organic," a food product must be produced without the use o f genetic modification or chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and must promote s ustainable cropping methods. In the United States, organically produced meat and dairy must be raised without the use of synthetic growth hormones or antibiotic s. Hormones and antibiotics are banned in animal production across the board in the European Union. Recently the United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency (FSA) reviewed existing rese arch on the nutritional content of organic produce concluded that there was no d ifference, nutritionally, between organic and non-organic produce. The FSA study did not examine the reasons most often given by consumers of organic produce, n amely benefits to the environment, farm workers, and consumer health due to lowe r chemical use. Yet the AFSSA review calls the FSA's conclusions into question. After conducting an "up-to-date exhaustive and critical evaluation of the nutritional and sanita ry quality of organic food," French researchers concluded that organic produce i s clearly nutritionally superior. Organic produce contains more minerals, such as iron and magnesium, than non-org anic produce, and higher levels of antioxidants such as phenols and salicylic ac id. "Organic plant food overall contain double the amount of phenolic compounds," th e researchers wrote. Animal foods produced organically contained significantly more polyunsaturated f at than non-organic animal products. In addition, organic vegetables contained 5 0 percent less nitrates than non-organic produce. No more than 6 percent of orga nic produce tested contained pesticide residue. ================================= The question of antibiotic resistance and the influence of agriculture is an exc ellent one. -------A way you could test your assumptions is to set up a small-scale, double-blind t est. Someone else would buy the foods (e.g., 5 organic Fuji apples and 5 convent ional Fuji apples) and code them. A second person, not knowing which apples are which, conducts the test wherein you attempt to identify the apples by smell alo ne. You write down your guesses. Then, the blinding is broken and reveal how you r guesses correspond to the reality. I m not a statistician, so I m not sure how man y out of 10 you would need to identify to score higher than chance. Of course, to increase the power of the test, it should be repeated several time s. --------------