it seems to me that steve groff's question compounds the confusion that is
already plaguing this discussion, i.e., the tendency to treat organic and
conventional, and now sustainable, as unitary, homogeneous categories . . .
even within one crop (e.g., carrots), there is not just one method of
organic production, there are various techniques of sustainable production,
and there are many approaches to conventional production . . . given this,
it seems to me that a researcher can do one of two things . . .
(1) a researcher can try to devise a way to obtain samples of, e.g., carrots
that are representative of the variety of organic techniques, the variety of
sustainable techniques, and the variety of conventional techniques
(2) a researcher can choose one or more locales, and in each locale
determine: what would be the best way to produce
organic/sustainable/conventional carrots in this locale . . . then within
each locale the researcher can do the usual sorts of random plot designs
within the constraints of the three approaches . . . if repeated across
several locales and across several crops, this might begin to give us useful
information
cheers,
craig
craig k harris
department of sociology
center for integrated plant systems
michigan state university
429b berkey hall
east lansing michigan 48824-1111
tel: 517-355-5048
fax: 517-432-2856
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Groff [mailto:sgroff@epix.net]
Sent: Thursday 17 February 2000 8:23 AM
To: sanet
Subject: organic/conventional nutritional values ?
With the renewed effort to quantify and compare nutritional values of
food grown organically vs. conventionally I'd like to throw another
category into the mix. What is the nutritional value of food grown that
does not qualify as organic, but has been grown using other recognized
sustainable methods? (such as in my case, using cover crops, rotation,
and a permanent mulch cover for most pest control, and then managing low
impact pesticides as a last resort). If anyone is actually doing these
tests, I would be more then happy to participate.
-- Steve Groff"Enhancing the Environment" http://www.cedarmeadowfarm.com/ Cedar Meadow Farm 679 Hilldale Road Holtwood, PA 17532 USA
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