Organic or Conventional?

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If you’re convinced that organically grown food is better than conventionally grown, consider this.  According to the Washington Post, Given a choice, birds prefer the conventional stuff.

The Post didn’t go out and actually do this study themselves.  They’re basing it on work that was done at Newcastle University in Great Britain and that was published last week in the Journal of the Science of Food Agriculture.  The study showed that, when allowed enough time to establish a preference, birds offered both seed grown organically and seed grown conventionally chose the latter.

According to the Post:

Researchers placed feeders containing organic wheat seed and conventional wheat seed in 30 gardens in northern England and measured the amount of each that the wild birds consumed. At two weigh-ins, six weeks apart, the birds had chosen conventional seed almost 60 percent of the time. In a parallel experiment, captive canaries made similar choices.

Researchers suggest that conventionally grown seed’s higher protein content is what pleased the birds. Conventional farmers fertilize soil with inorganic nitrogen, which converts to protein in the seeds.

So what does this mean for human consumers? Not much, really. We generally get enough protein in our diets without having to work at it. And those who prefer organic food often do so for reasons other than the food’s nutritional value, such as its lack of pesticides

The last time that I checked the Washington Post stats, 260 people had voted.  Of that number, 47{4d08edaf359bc2115b18a651716ebd427a137946ddca2143fa23b3ea721061e4} said that they sometimes buy organic – sometimes buy conventionally grown.  22{4d08edaf359bc2115b18a651716ebd427a137946ddca2143fa23b3ea721061e4} said “I think it’s a scam, conventionally grown food suits me just fine.  18{4d08edaf359bc2115b18a651716ebd427a137946ddca2143fa23b3ea721061e4} said “I think it’s great, but rarely buy it.  Organic food costs too much to by it regularly.  Smaller percentages either answered that they buy it exclusively, or, they gave that elusive “other” response.  CLICK HERE to take their survey or take ours!

 

Posted by Haylie Shipp

 

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