land heritage
Wellington, Somerset TA21 9NU

WE ARE WHAT WE EAT

- THE QUALITY AND VALUE OF ORGANIC FOOD

1. Introduction

The arguments in favour of organic food and farming have been made with increasing vigour and confidence over the last decade.

By 2001, surveys have confirmed that over half the population buy some organic food and that demand is increasing year on year.

The advantages of organic systems are numerous:-

• reduced chemical pollution of soil and water and lower costs of cleaning the environment
• less contamination of food with chemical residues
• more employment on the land
• greater biodiversity
• better quality of food

The first four of these advantages are not disputed. The fifth claim continues to be an issue of some controversy as it challenges the the conventional industrial and chemical approach to food production.

This article explores the evidence for the superior quality of organic food and in particular seeks answers to the following questions.

Does intensive chemical farming effect the quality of food, reducing or changing its vital ingredients ?

What evidence is there that food produced by organic systems of farming and growing is of a higher quality ?

Is it possible to measure the quality of food ?

Is organic food more expensive in terms of the totality of the cost of food production ?

Very little research work addressing these questions has been undertaken in the UK. However, in mainland Europe and Scandanavia, where the importance of organic and biodynamic farming has long been recognised, the results of extensive research are widely available. Much of this work was published in the late `70`s and confirmed the evidence for the nutritional superiority of organic cereals, fruit and vegetables. The classic experiments undertaken over a twelve year period by Schuphan were a particularly salutory lesson in discipline and commitment.

2. The definition of quality

Quality in food is a difficult concept to define and some aspects involve a subjective assessment which becomes too narrow and dismissive.

The most obvious indicator of quality is the visual impact of the produce. A product without visible blemish, in association with uniformity of shape and size has become, for the consumer, the cornerstone of acceptance.

In assessing `real quality` or `good quality` too much attention is paid to these external criteria. Any blemish disappears during processing and the sanitizing process to ensure visual quality of every individual item can only be achieved through the use of chemical fungicide washes.

Questioning this approach becomes a matter of imparting knowledge and raising the consumer`s awareness of the inherent dangers of such a system.

3. Technical quality

The wholesaler and retailer are concerned with technical quality, i.e resistance to damage during handling, which ultimately influences the shelf life of the produce.

The storage capacity of vegetables is weakened by increasing doses of mineral fertilizers throughout the growing period, especially nitrogen.

The results of six investigations are shown below.

STORAGE LOSSES IN VARIOUS PRODUCTS OF DIFFERENT ORIGIN BY %

* includes losses caused by sorting according to visual quality

Storage losses in non-organic produce are significantly greater than in organic produce. The underlying reason for this is the high doses of chemical nitrogen, maintaining the vegetables in a permanently immature state. Lignin formation is reduced and the heavier weight of the produce is related to the greater encapsulation of water, as the plant cells become stretched. As a consequence the weakened epidermal walls are prone to rupture and bruising.

Aphids acting as virus vectors can then more easily penetrate the fragile cell wall layers and infect the plants. Once the integrity of the vegetable surface skin is breached, contamination by fungi becomes widespread. The use of fungicides then becomes a prerequisite to maintaining external visual quality.

Stress may also have a part to play in this, reducing the effectiveness of the plants own antibiotic defences.

It further begs the question: ``does the policy of maximising yield reduce the quality of the end product ? ``

In recognition that the application of nitrogen fertilizer increases the cellular water content, the measurement of relative yields of organic and non-organic produce on the basis of dry matter rather than fresh weight, gives a more accurate result. The water contents of plants can vary enormously, depending upon the farming or growing system employed.

4. Physiological quality

The final criterion of food quality relates to what may be termed physiological quality, where the unseen nutritional components of the food form the basis of comparison.

Within this context, organic produce just as non-organic produce will be influenced by both soil-borne as well as air-borne contamination. Vegetables grown on soils with a high level of molybdenum, will contain within their biomass high levels of molybdenum. The inorganic elements within the soil are always there. Problems arise when the heavy metals are in excess. Repeated applications of sewage sludge, containing cadmium, mercury and lead are cumulative, irreversible and highly toxic.

It is therefore impossible to claim that any type of food is residue free, and such claims are open to the charge of consumer fraud.

It is possible however, to determine which are the chemical pollutants, and to investigate the ill effects of such contaminants.

5. Nitrates in food

Nitrates are the largest single pollutant of food, and the main dietary source are vegetables. Under intensive growing regimes the contaminant level of 64 mg equates to 70% of the average daily nitrate intake per person per day. This contrasts with the average intake levels in meat and meat products of 6% and 21% in the drinking water. The nitrate ( NO3) is reduced by the body processes to nitrite ( NO2), and if the average daily intake of nitrate is more than 40mg per litre, this results in a large increase in the saliva of nitrite. The average daily intake is in UK is in the region of 91mg per litre. In Worksop town in 1973, there was a correlation between the increasing incidence of stomach cancer outbreaks and the level of nitrate contamination above 90mg per litre. It is recognised that nitrites will combine with amines (protein derivatives) and under certain conditions within the body will produce potentially carcinogenic nitrosamines.

More controversial is the claim that excess nitrates were responsible for the outbreaks of methaemoglobinaemia in the South East in the drought year of 1975.

As the overground reservoirs were subject to evaporation, this concentrated the nitrate contamination in the water and the resultant liquid fed to infants caused the nitrites (reduced nitrates) to displace the oxygen molecule within the blood haemoglobin, with some fatal results.

In recognition of the hazard, the EU regulates the contamination of drinking water to a maximum of 50 mg per litre. Yet it neglects to legislate against the main dietary source of nitrate, which is still vegetables.

A survey in Switzerland in 1982 of seven paired organic and conventional growers, showed that nitrate levels were lower in organically produced lettuce and that the months of lowest light intensity in November through to March, corresponded to the highest level of nitrates within the lettuces.

The implies that eating vegetables out of season could increase the risk of contamination. In any event, eating out of season creates the need to preserve food, reducing its vitality in the process.

An interesting experiment conducted by Temperli in 1982 showed that there were different concentrations of nitrate and vitamin C in the various parts of a lettuce plant.

DISTRIBUTION OF NITRATES & VIT C IN LETTUCE (Temperli 1982)

Everyone eats the heart!

6. Vitamins and Minerals

There is substantial recognition that vitamins and minerals are an essential part of the human diet, imparting health and wellbeing. They are essential ingredients for the complex metabolic processes of daily living.

It would therefore seem reasonable to choose these essential components of the human diet as measurement parameters in the investigation.

In 1977 some early experiments conducted at the Suisse Institute for Vitamin Research indicated the following:

THE SAFETY & QUALITY OF ORGANIC FARMING AS INDICATED IN VITAMIN ANALYSIS OF VEGETABLES

One of the most telling investigations, which lasted for 12 years was the work undertaken by Schuphan, the results of which appeared in 1975.

NUTRITIONAL VALUES OF CROPS AS INFLUENCED BY A COMPARISON OF ORGANIC / INORGANIC FERTILIZATION

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(W. Schuphan: Nutritional values of crops as influenced by organic / inorganic fertilization; Qual. Plant Vol 23)

Of interest is the marked increase in iron content of organically grown vegetables. This is of particular relevence to expectant and nursing mothers.

Stonehouse in 1981 substantially confirmed the results of Schuphan`s work:

ANALYSIS OF BIOLOGICALLY GROWN AND CONVENTIONALLY GROWN VEGETABLES ( Potatoes, Leeks, Kale, Cos lettuce, Turnips)

It has been shown that many traditional varieties of fruit are a richer source of vitamins than modern varieties.

Prof H Vogtmann has shown that one apple of a traditional variety was found to supply the daily adult requirement of vitamin C of 50 mg ( World Health Organisation), whereas one Golden Delicious apple only supplied 8 mg - one sixth of the daily requirement.

This has far-reaching implications in terms of plant breeding, where new varieties are largely bred for yield and response to chemical fertilizer. It also vindicates the valiant efforts of HDRA, in setting up a seed bank and germ plasm source of the `old fashioned`, more traditional cereal, vegetable and fruit varieties. It also supports the ideology of less for more, thereby reducing the exploitation of the land and environmental degradation.

7. Social costs: nitrate control

There is also a hidden social cost to the production of processed food. Maximising individual benefit from a given system of production also benefits society, but only up to a certain point. When the elastic limit is passed, the social costs are increased and eventually overtake the benefit.

The Government`s proposed solution is the application of `the polluter pays principle`. This is a drastic solution in agricultural terms. Conventional farming would become bankrupt overnight.

A Wessex Water scheme, pays an additional grant of between £20 - 40 per ha over two years, to farmers in selected catchment areas in support of conversion to organic farming. The alternative, of building new plant to remove excessive levels of nitrate, would cost £20-30 million, with recurrent costs of £0.2 million per year per mega litre to ensure control.

The social cost of nitrate removal in drinking water was succinctly illustrated by Alvermann in 1982 when he investigated the system of growing potatoes in a sandy soil. One application of 130kg of nitrate fertilizer per ha results (as a conservative estimate) in an average leachate of 45 kg of nitrate per ha. This equates to 2000 cu metres per ha per year of potential contamination. Control of this level of pollution can be achieved by bacterial action, cation exchange or reverse osmosis. If the cheapest estimate of 23 p per cu metre is allocated, Alvermann calculates that the equivalent cost is £533 per ha for a single application of fertilizer.

8. Social costs: food miles

The inevitable question of `food miles` as part of the social cost is not just related to energy and fuel consumption, but also to the pollution effects of burning fossil fuels. In the year 2000, 34 % of road freight was concerned with the delivery of processed food.

If the miles travelled by each item of food in a full supermarket trolley were calculated, an average figure of 3000 food miles is the staggering total. Organic food is not excempt from this, as the supermarkets strive to provide out of season vegetables from abroad.

When these figures are taken into consideration, with the realisation that 8.5 million tons of waste is food packaging, there is no such thing as cheap food.

EXAMPLES OF FOOD MILES

9. Pesticide contamination of food

The question as to whether it is possible to produce food free from pesticides depends upon the circumstances relating to the position of the farm or nursery. An organic holding, surrounded by intensive farms, will be subject to the effects of spray drift, unless steps are taken to provide adequate protection in the form of field margins, protective separation and hedgerows.

Hitting the optimum spray window for the crop every time the plant is sprayed because of variable weather conditions, can be likened to a patient in a Doctor`s surgery, where the patient in one corner is subject to lumps of medication thrown by the Doctor from the other corner, in the hope that some will reach the right target.

Of the numerous pesticides sprayed on UK food, Snell and Nichol ( London Food Commission) have identified:

49 possible carcinogens
31 teratogens
60 mutagens
89 irritants

Approximately 20% of the spray droplets are so fine as to remain permanently suspended in the air. The effects of chronic, multiple exposure to pesticides have never been evaluated and the long term consequences of exposure are unknown.

Of greater concern are the hidden effects of the combination of biocides and their possible by-products, which result from storage and breakdown.

This is graphically illustrated by the fate of a commonly used organo- phosphate fungicide, Dithio Carbamate ( DTC) which produces traces of a breakdown product known as Ethylene Thiourea ( ETU). This compound increases in quantity the longer it is stored.

When the contaminated vegetables are cooked, more ETU is liberated and this eventually combines with any free nitrites to form nitroso ETU, which is both mutagenic and carcinogenic.

ETHYLENE THIOUREA (ETU) - A DANGEROUS METABOLITE OF DITHIOCARBAMATE ( DTC) ( Schupbach: 1981)

Externally the situation looks benign. Unfortunately, there are so many different biocide compounds which are novel, and have no counterpart in nature.

It is impossible to provide ecological and toxilogical tests for 400 pesticides, especially to replicate the different combinations which will occur in the soil biomass. Can we afford to be complacent and condone the production of contaminated food ?

10. Organo-phosphate contamination

In the 1980s, the UK Government required famers to treat their cattle under the Warble Fly Eradication Order with an organo phosphate (OP) compound which had a systemic action. This was poured along the spine of the cow and was absorbed into the body mass, turning it into a poisonous medium and killing any warble grubs before pupation. The pour-on OP in widest use was Phosmet and it was applied at a high dose rate of 20mg per kg. Mark Purdy, an organic farmer won a High Court action in 1984 preventing MAFF from forcibly treating his cows with the warble fly pesticide. His stance was taken from the viewpoint that the use of Phosmet would permanently deform proteins inside the central nervous system of both livestock and human beings, and could be causative factor of CJD, the OP inducing a chemical mutation of the indigenous bovine prion into a rogue form. This may be exacerbated through an imbalance or deficiency of certain trace elements, which are an essential component of detoxifying enzymes.

There have been no reported cases of BSE in cattle reared on fully organic farms.

The danger from OPs is not just in terms of contact with concentrated chemicals, but also from inhalation of the chemical fumes as the fine linings of the lungs are designed for gaseous exchange of the inhalant. This is a particular risk to sheep farmers, using OPs to control sheep scab, where the chronic insidious effects have been blamed for causing a wide range of illnesses.

OPs are banned under the Organic Certification Standards, and are not allowed to enter the human food chain.

The HSE leaflet Medical series No 17, entitled Biological monitoring of workers exposed to O P pesticides ( published in 1981/ revised in 1986 /7) highlighted the dangers of this type of pesticide. OP poisoning is a prescribed disease and the need to regularly check the health of people at risk is an essential recommendation.

The work undertaken by Swanson and Shaw at the Central Vet Lab, Weybridge in 1989 confirmed that OPs inhibit the enzyme cholinesterase, which regulates the transmission of nerve signals. Once this happens, the nerves are forced into `overdrive`, and although acute symptoms usually only last for a few hours, there can be an adverse delayed effect.

MANIFESTATIONS OF OP INSECTICIDE POISONING

Pesticide poisoning may also mimic haemorrhage, heat stoke, heat exhaustion, gastroenteritis, hyperglycaemia, asthma, pneumonia or other severe respiratory infection.

11. Curing of pigmeat

Raw pork is turned into ham with the help of a curing solution and as with bacon, it is cured by treatment with salt and usually sodium nitrite. This gives the meat the flavour and the pink colour which distinguishes it from ordinary pigmeat. The traditional way of curing the carcass is to rub salt into the meat and soak in a solution of salt and nitrite and allow to mature in a cool place.

The modern method is to to pump the curing solution into the meat via the arteries or straight into the flesh. The nitrite is used as a bacteriocide, particularly to prevent the colonisation of clostridial bacteria, which would render the pigmeat unfit for human consumption and an extreme public health risk.

A more acceptable alternative to sodium nitrite for curing, preventing the formation of toxic nitrosamines, is ascorbic acid ( vitamin C ) or sorbic acid, where the efficacy of these compounds is just as good, without the adverse side effects. It seems ironic that MAFF perpetuates a system of producing contaminated food.

12. Conclusion

The proportion of the retail price of food received by farmers has been in decline for years. Marketing, distribution, processing and retailing has seen to that.

Vast armies of buyers, distributors , packagers, wholesalers take their comission and the sacred aspect of the act of growing and preparing food is lost. The local shop is suffocated by centralised systems, relying upon transport to perpetuate the myth of consumer choice.

Why must the basic foods be transported thousands of miles when it can be produced right here? This is insanity economics.

As the small family farms are lost through exorbitant debt burdens and crippling interest rates, there is a parallel to the closure of the direct local and regional networks of food distribution.

Organic food has the ability to break the perpetual downward spiral of pressure to produce the maximum per acre and to do so as cheaply as possible. Optimum production displaces maximum, and farmers through the medium of a local decentralised market, can supply the product that people want at the price that they can afford.

Thus the identity of the grower is reinforced through repeated contact, the preference of the customer is verbally and easily communicated, and if the skill of the farmer is realised in the integrity and health giving nutritional quality of the vegetables and meat on display, the support is mutual and the social costs minimised.

As Einstein said: “ One cannot solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that created it”

References:

Cornblath, M & Hartmann, AF ( 1948) J. Pediat., 33,42

Seiber, R & Blank, B ( 1978) Zur Bewertung von nitrat, nitrit und N-Nitrosoverbindungen. Dt Molkereizeilung 99

Speigelhalder,B et al (1976) Influence of dietary nitrate on nitrite content of human saliva Cosmet toxicol 14

Swann, PF (1975) The toxicology of nitrate, nitrite and N-nitroso compounds J Sci Fd Agric 26

Phillips, WEJ ( 1971) Naturally occuring nitrate and nitrite in foods in relation to infant methaemoglobinaemia Fd. cosmet.toxicol 9

Wurket, K (1978) Feldstudie uber Einflusse Methamoglobinamiebildender Factoren in Rheinessen Zbl Bakt.Hyg., J.Abt orig., B 166

Hill,MJ et al (1973) Bacteria, nitrosamines and cancer of the stomach Br. J. Cancer 28

Barnes, JM & Magee, PN (1954) Some toxic properties of dimethylnitrosamine Brit. J Ind. Med 11 Taylor,HW & Lijinsky, W (19750 Tumour induction in rats by feeding heptamethylnitrosamine and nitrite in water Cancer Res 35

Alvermann, G (1982) Soziale Kosten aus der landwirtscaftlichen Produktion Diplomarbeit, Univ Kassell, Witzenhausen, Germany

Matile, PH (1981) Nitrat im Stoffhaushallt der Pflanze. Nitrat im Gemusebau und Landwirtschaft 85-94 Gottleib Duttweiler Inst

Lijinsky, W & Epstein, S ( 1970) Nitrosamines as environmental carcinogens Nature 225

Temperli, AT et al (1982) EinfluB zweier Anbauweisen auf den Nitratgehalt von Kopfsalat Schweiz. Landw. Forschung 21

Schupbach, M ( 1981) Toxische Spurenstoffe in der nahrung und landwirtschaft - liche technik Mitt. Scweitz. Stiflung Z. Ford. Biol landbhaus 15

Schuphan, W et al (1976) Qual Plant Veget 14

Schupan, W ( 1969) Bildung von nitrat und nitrit in pflan zlichen Stoffwechsel. bibl Nutrilio et Dieta 11

Wistinghausen, VE ( 1973) Zum porblem der Stickstoffauswaschung aus Boden Lebendige Erde Sammelband 1973

With thanks to Rob Brighton the Land Heritage Director who wrote and compiled this report. April 2001.
Copyright - Land Heritage 2001.

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