Just a few weeks ago, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) published information that shows many organic foods are richer in nutrients compared to conventional foods but you probably missed that fact among all the stories saying exactly the opposite.

These facts were ignored as “not important” in the greater scheme of the FSA’s research and organic produce was labelled no better than conventional foods. What their research doesn’t talk about is real life and the whole holistic argument – pesticides, animal welfare and perhaps the most important element where food is concerned – taste. There has never been a more confusing time to be an organic consumer. Amazingly, throughout this research and press reports of the story, organic and natural farming was considered a modern fad, an experiment for crackpots, hippies and earth-mothers. The truth though is rather different – farmers have used natural and organic methods for thousands of years, successfully feeding themselves, their families and local communities while working in harmony with nature.

The true experiment is the industrial, mono-culture methods carried out by the modern day farmers and scientists.

The pesiticide effect The Pesticide Action Network worked with the Sheepdrove Trust some time ago to produce educational tools for people of all ages to highlight the dangers of pesticides in your food.

They detailed the fact that 31,000 tonnes of pesticide are sprayed on UK land every year; and they detailed the individual effects of many pesticides – particularly their impact on the human body. There is also very little known about the cocktail effect – mixing several of these chemicals together in your body at any one time.

What you eat eats Another consideration is the growing conditions of the food and the welfare of stock. Corn-fed chicken sounds great doesn’t it? Supermarkets sell it at a premium and it frequently ends up as a family Sunday roast. But how many chemicals were used to grow the corn, how was it processed