Despite
the media’s best efforts to hype organic food and convince the public
that it was better for people, some remained skeptical.
The media spent years promoting organic foods from The Washington Post’s absurd claim [1] in July 2006 that organic food is good because it forces people to “spend more, eat less” to NBC’s 2009 “Green Week” [2] that encouraged eating organic food. There were many other examples in between including “Glamour” magazine's listing eating organic [3] as one of many things a woman could do to help counteract global warming in 2007. Then in 2008, ABC’s “Nightline” promoted a non-expert [4] who demonized any food that wasn’t organic, labeling organic as “food” and everything else as “food-like substances.”
But a new study officially released [5]
on Sept. 3 by the Annals of Internal Medicine concluded that “strong
evidence” was lacking “that organic foods are significantly more
nutritious than conventional foods.” Just two years ago Dr. Melina
Jampolis encouraged [6]
CNN.com readers to “try to emphasize organic fruits and vegetables” as a
New Year’s resolution, in an “expert Q&A” published Jan. 1, 2010.
But the new study forced CNN, and other news outlets, to deliver a very
different message.
On
Sept. 3, William Hudson wrote an article for CNN.com about the study’s
findings saying: “Published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine,
it finds that organic produce has no more vitamins than conventionally grown produce [7].”
Of course, Hudson still found people willing to pay extra for organic
foods to reduce pesticide exposure. USA Today online reported that the
study argues against people’s motives for buying organic produce.
A
day earlier, CNN’s senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen also
focused on the new study saying, “There haven’t been good studies out
there that say … if you had fewer pesticides in your body, you’re going
to live longer or you’re not going to get cancer or you’re not going to
get heart disease or whatever. There hasn’t been a solid scientific link
between consuming fewer pesticides and living longer or avoiding
certain diseases.”
Cohen
admitted that price is the biggest problem with going organic. “The
money is a part of the decision. What’s interesting is when we went out
and bought this produce this morning, this group of organic produce …
cost about $5 more than the non organic. That’s a big price difference.
This isn’t a lot of food, so that’s a serious price difference.”
USA
Today’s Elizabeth Weise wrote that “A 2010 Nielsen study found that 76%
bought them believing they are healthier, 53% because they allowed them
to avoid pesticides and other toxins, 51% because they are more
nutritious and 49% because organic farming is better for the
environment,” on Sept. 3. NBC also mentioned this new study [8] on “Today” Sept. 4 and published a Reuters article about it online.
