Study finds significantly more antioxidants in organic produce

From Times Online [link]:

Researchers grew fruit and vegetables and reared cattle on adjacent organic and nonorganic sites on a 725-acre farm attached to Newcastle University, and at other sites in Europe. They found that levels of antioxidants in milk from organic herds were up to 90% higher than in milk from conventional herds.

As well as finding up to 40% more antioxidants in organic vegetables, they also found that organic tomatoes from Greece had significantly higher levels of antioxidants, including flavo-noids thought to reduce coronary heart disease.

There are also non-nutrition-related reasons for choosing organic produce. I don't buy any organic food at the moment, but it's something I've been thinking about.

Because of the flakiness of many of the people who promote organic food, it's easy to dismiss the whole thing as rubbish. I was unreasonably dismissive of organic food until fairly recently, but I've had to think twice since reading Michael Pollan's life-changing Botany Of Desire. Pollan only touches on organic farming briefly, but makes a very strong case for choosing to buy organic over conventionally-farmed produce.

Health website DrGreene.com has a feature about 'strategic' organic shopping, listing the organic products that would have the greatest impact if you switched to them: Link.