Eating Organic:

A public health

necessity?Yana Puckett, MD

Steven Rose

Xiaoyu Zong

Introduction Regulations

Cost-effectiveness: Safe at any Price?

Health benefits?

Pesticides

Organic: Hype?

Genetically Modified, Irradiated

Politics

Labels

Future of Organic?

What is organic?

According to the United States

Environmental Protection Agency:

“"Organically grown" food is food grown and processed using no

synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Pesticides derived from natural

sources (e.g., biological pesticides) may also be used in producing

organically grown food. Increasingly, some consumers are

purchasing organically grown and processed foods as a way to

reduce their exposure to synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.”

A Profitable Business

Regulation of Organic To be certified as 100% organic

Land usage

Management practices

Crop rotation practices

Pest control policies

Livestock origin, feed, healthcare, and living conditions

Prevent commingling of product

Certified Organic

Cost Effectiveness Must pay certification costs up to $2000 annually

Cost between 50-100% more than traditional farm products

EWG determined produce worth vs those not worth spending the extra money on.

2012 – $35 billion industry

Stanford study

Mandatory labeling

Health Benefits of Organic

Foods

More nutritional value

Claim: Pesticides may limit nutrition

absorption properties of produce

Benefits of no pesticides

What are phenols?

Cancer chemopreventive – flavonoids!

Capture free radicals before DNA

damage can occur.

Free-radical theory of aging

Data from “New evidence confirms the nutritional superiority of plant-based organic foods,” by Charles

Benbrook, et. al. The Organic Center, March 2008.

Factors that Affect Nutritional

Content

Vitamins and phytochemicals

Weather (affecting crops year-to-year)

Specific environmental conditions from

one farm to the next(microclimates)

Soil condition

Length of time the specific plots of land

had been worked using organic methods

Soil Quality and Style of

Farming

~Six recent studies of nutrient content of

organic tomatoes, only one showed no

significant differences between organic

and conventional farms (3).

Weather

Burbank tomato study.

Quercetin?

Kaempferol?

Pesticides

World pesticide use exceeded 5.0 billion

lbs in both 2000 and 2001. (5).

Both the amount of pesticide residue on

foodstuff and the amount released into

the atmosphere are factors that should be

considered when purchase organically

raised food.

Pesticides

Organic foods were much less likely than

non-organic produce (by a factor of 10)

to have two or more residues. (1)

Only 2.6% of organic foods had

detectable multiple residues compared

to 26% of conventionally grown foods. (6)

Pesticides

Organically raised foods had one-third

the amount of chemical residues found in

conventionally raised foods (1).

Compared to produce grown with

integrated pest management techniques,

the organic produce had one-half the

amount of residue (1),

Pesticide Residues Highest percentages of insecticide residue findings(6):

-celery (96%)-pears (95%)-apples (94%)-peaches (93%) -strawberries (91%)

-oranges (85%)-spinach (84%) -potatoes (81%)-grapes (78%)-cucumbers (74%)

Organic Farming Terms like “all natural,” “non-toxic,” “earth-

friendly,” or containing “natural botanicals,” but the ingredients list chemical after chemical.

At face value, these products look more natural. In reality, there is no regulating agency to verify whether any of the claims are true.

That means that marketing claims can be very misleading.

Organic Farming

Cruelty Free farming

Organic chicken

The Happy Egg company

http://youtu.be/AHsvetb6nXU

http://youtu.be/tloxthQu7vQ

Labeling: Beware!

Genetically Modified,

Irradiated

Antibiotic and virus resistance

Herbicide resistance

Scientific studies: no greater adverse health risk than conventional food (8-10).

Long term studies needed.

Regulation is questioned.

Future of Organic Food Community gardens

Healthy Living City Designs: Space for

community gardens and farmer’s

markets, especially low income areas.

Vertical farming

http://youtu.be/1clRcxZS52s

Community Gardens

Vertical Farming

Vertical Farming

Glass space, vertical + artificial lighting.

Ken Yeang and Dickson D. Despommier

Feeding the world in the 21st century

Eliminate world hunger

Proponents for Vertical

Farming

Preparation for future

Crop production year round

Protection of crops from pests and

weather

Animal extinction stopped

Methane energy production

Organic crops! Easier regulation! Impact

human health.

Criticism of Vertical Farming

Questionable profitability

Greenhouse gases

Water source depleted

Conclusion

Growing business, surpassed $13.8 billion

in 2005 (Organic Trade Assn. 2006).

Health benefits exist

If you can afford, buy! If not, no big deal!

Vertical farming

References 1 Baker BP, Benbrook CM, Groth E 3rd,Lutz Benbrook K. Pesticide residues in conventional, integrated pest

management (IPM)-grown and organic foods: insights from three US data sets. Food Addit Contam 2002;19:427-

446.

2 Chassy AW, Bui L, Renaud EN, et al. Three-year comparison of the content of antioxidant microconstituents and

several quality characteristics in organic and conventionally managed tomatoes and bell peppers. J Agric Food

Chem 2006;54:8244-8252.

3 Juroszek P, Lumpkin HM, Yang RY, et al. Fruit quality and bioactive compounds with antioxidant activity of

tomatoes grown on-farm: comparison of organic and conventional management systems. J Agric Food Chem

2009;57:1188-1194.

4 Mitchell AE, Hong YJ, Hoh E, et al. Ten-year comparison of the influence of organic and conventional crop

management practices on the content of flavonoids in tomatoes. J Agric Food Chem 2007;55:6154-6159.

5 Pesticides industry sales and usage. 2000 and 2001 market estimates.

http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/pestsales/01pestsales/market_estimates2001.pdf [Accessed October 23, 2014]

6 U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Pesticide residue monitoring program 2000.

http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/Pesticides/ucm125171.htm [Accessed October 23,

2014]

7 American Medical Association (2012). Report 2 of the Council on Science and Public Health: Labeling of

Bioengineered Foods

8 United States Institute of Medicine and National Research Council (2004). Safety of Genetically Engineered

Foods: Approaches to Assessing Unintended Health Effects. National Academies Press. Free full-text. National

Academies Press. See pp11ff on need for better standards and tools to evaluate GM food.

9 Key S, Ma JK, Drake PM (June 2008). "Genetically modified plants and human health". J R Soc Med 101 (6):

290–8. doi:10.1258/jrsm.2008.070372. PMC 2408621. PMID 18515776.