French Study Showing Organic Foods Are Healthier

FRANCE: ORGANIC PRODUCTS SHOW BETTER NUTRITIONAL QUALITY THAN CONVENTIONAL
16 August, AgriOnline.
from <www.organicts.com>

Looking for "scientific arguments" to answer the question: "do I have to eat
organic?", Henri Joyeux, surgeon and cancerologist, launched the first
study comparing the nutritional qualities of food stemming from various
farming practices: organic, agriculture "raisonnée" and conventional
agriculture. Twenty common foods of each type of agriculture were analysed
to find what they contained, reports the newspaper "Ouest-France" in its
August 16th edition.

The products that were compared, all cultivated in Languedoc-Roussillon,
were selected by the trade organizations for each of the agricultural
disciplines.

The research program will complete at the end of the year and the
publication of the results is expected in 2002. But in the interim the first
results show good news for organics. "For twelve foods which we've already
analyzed, organic is ahead in terms of nutritional quality and
micronutriments", Henri Joyeux summarizes. "In organic food one finds more
micronutrients essential for good health: vitamins A, C, E, vitamins of the
B group, and other elements such as zinc and minerals such as as calcium,
and fibre."

Food from agriculture "raisonnée" sometimes provide a better source of
micronutriments", notes the doctor. "But the results, more diverse than
those for organic agriculture, seem to indicate the absence of rigorous
conditions of contract for agriculture "raisonnée".