To eat or not to eat organic food

6 min readJul 21, 2021

Today I’m just going to talk about whole foods (fruits, vegetables and vegetables) and the differences between organic, organic and natural foods, and the benefits and harms of each one of them.

According to the website of the European Commission:

Organic farming is an agricultural method that aims to produce food using natural substances and processes. Organic farming tends to have a limited environmental impact as it encourages: 1. the responsible use of energy and natural resources; 2. the conservation of biodiversity; 3. the preservation of regional ecological balances; 4. the improvement of soil fertility; 5. water quality conservation.

To eat: Benefits

Fewer pesticides

Every year a report is issued by the “European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)”, with an analysis of products with the highest number of pesticides, distinguishing between conventional and organic/organic agriculture. You can see the 2019 report (which was published in February 2021) here.

Below you can see a graph, taken from this last report, which compares the number of pesticides against the Maximum Residue Level (MRL) in conventional and organic/organic agriculture for different food groups.

Compared to conventionally produced food (non-organic), the MRL (Maximum Residue Levels) exceedance and quantification rate trends are generally lower in organic food. In 2019, the MRL exceedance rate was 1.3% in organic food, while 4.1% for conventional food; the same pattern was observed for the quantification rates, which were 11.9%60in organic food and 41.7% in conventional food.

Effects of pesticides

The health effects of increased consumption of pesticides include increased prevalence of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, certain birth defects, multiple myeloma, low birth weight, etc. Certain studies reported anti-atherosclerotic properties for organic food. Torjusen et al. showed that consumption of organic food reduced the risk of preeclampsia in pregnant women [20]. Oken et al. showed that dietary intake of n-3 fatty acids reduced the risk of pre-eclampsia and Średnicka-Tober et al. in their study, reported increased levels of n-3 fatty acids in organic food, which might indirectly relate to the reduced risk of pre-eclampsia aіer consumption of organic food [47]. Brantsæter et al. reported that organic food consumption reduced the prevalence of hypospadias [21].

In the European Union, the number of pesticides is regulated. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) establish maximum limits that theoretically have no carcinogenic effects. The report mentioned above reveals the results of the samples analysed in the year 2019.

The frequent consumption of food commodities with episodic presence of pesticide residues that are suspected to cause developmental and neurological effects in young children supports the need for further investigation.

The effects of pesticides are highly related to the type and amount we are exposed to, and this will depend on the product and the amount we consume.

Which are the most critical

The EWG (Environmental Working Group), which is an American association specializing in research and advocacy in the areas of agricultural subsidies, toxic chemicals, drinking water pollutants, and cooperative responsibility, each year it releases a report which lists foods considered “dirty” and foods considered “clean”. This shows us the foods with more and fewer pesticides, serving as a guide when we need to go to the supermarket. The studies are carried out in the USA, however as I cannot find a similar list made in Portugal/European Union, I use this as a guide when I have to prioritize foods, choosing organic and non-organic.

You can see here the list of “dirty” foods and “clean” food made with products sold in the USA.

For Europe, this motorization is made by EFSA, European Food Safety Authority, that releases an annual report with the foods with the highest level of pesticides. This year was release the report from 2019 analysis and the plant-based foods with the highest pesticides were:

Fruits: passion fruit, dragon fruit, pomegranate, prickly pear, apricots and dates
Vegetables: pods, watercress and celery leaves
Aromatic herbs: coriander, chilli and basil
Others: edible flowers, teas, rice, wild mushrooms and cassava

Among the unprocessed products (Figure 10) with at least 50 samples analysed, the highest MRL exceedance rates (greater than 15%) were identified for grape leaves, yard-long beans, coriander leaves, chilli peppers, watercresses, passion fruits/maracujas, pitahaya (dragon fruit), celery leaves, pomegranates, basil and edible flowers, teas, cassava roots/manioc and prickly pears/cactus fruits. Processed products of wild fungi, rice, dates and apricots exceeded the MRL with a frequency greater than 10% of samples (with at least 30 samples analysed).

Better nutritionally

Bigger quantity of nutrients

If a person changes from consuming exclusively conventional fruits and vegetables, to choosing the organic versions of the same products in the same amounts, the intake of all secondary metabolites will increase by approx. 12% (Table 3). From a health perspective, for the reasons provided in section IIIC, it is a reasonable assumption to expect that this would correspond to an increase in the consumption of these foods by 12%. (…) Under the same assumptions, the 12% increase caused by switching to organic fruits and vegetables would correspond to an increase in life expectancy of, on average, 17 days for women and 25 days for men.

This study also found that the amount of vitamin C was higher when the juice was made using organic oranges.

Less quantity of antibiotics

Of greater concern is the prevalent use of antibiotics in conventional animal production as a key driver of antibiotic resistance in society; antibiotic use is less intensive in organic production.

Bigger quantity of antioxidants

Organic strawberries had significantly higher total antioxidant activity (8.5% more), ascorbic acid (9.7% more), and total phenolics (10.5% more) than conventional berries (Table 2), but significantly less phosphorus (13.6% less) and potassium (9.1% less).

Less greenhouse gas emissions

Photo by www.zanda. photography on Unsplash

Not to eat: Harms

Here you can see a very interesting article where it talks about the impacts of organic and conventional agriculture and the impact on the environment. Areas where conventional farming is preferable to organic farming are:

Land use: Where, according to this study, the most critical is the production of meat and meat products and vegetables.
Acidification potential (decrease in water pH, which may have a negative impact on the aquatic ecosystem): The most critical is for cereals and vegetables
Potential eutrophication (pollution of aquatic elements due to excess nutrients which can lead to excess growth of some algae, depleting oxygen).: The most critical is for cereals and dairy products

Final thoughts

There are several studies that indicate the benefits of consuming organic foods, either because of the nutritional increase they have or because of the lesser exposure to pesticides. There are, however, studies that indicate that these nutritional differences are very limited and that, in terms of pesticides, as in Europe, the amounts are regulated that the risk is very low.

In addition to the impact on us, it is important to review the impact on the environment. The area needed for agriculture, the possibility of acidification and eutrophication may be some less positive points of organic agriculture.

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