So what does "organic' and "conventional" really mean?

I've read many times in the last several months of people citing "a study" that concluded that organic food is no more nutritious than the rest of the food on the grocery shelf.  I'm tempted to digress to talk about "studies" but maybe I'll save that for another day.  The labels "organic" and "conventional" are what I want to discuss right now.  Each state determines what standards and governing bodies are used to certify what is organic.  As long as all the right "hoops" are jumped through, those products are certified organic.  Now I'm going to say something that might shock some of you, but some of the best (most nutritious) food you can buy and the worst (least nutritious) food can be found on the organic shelf.

How can this be?  Even though both products are technically certified organic, they were raised quite differently. I've talked about this before and it will come up again.  Working with nature will generally produce higher quality food than forcing nature with nitrate fertilizers and this goes for organic or conventional.  You see there are  more options than just organic and conventional.  One can be certified organic but still be thinking conventionally and forcing nature while using all organic approved materials.  Then there are conventional producers who tend to work more with nature rather than forcing it with lots of nitrate fertilizers.  Both producers who worked with nature are capable of raising nutrient dense food.

So other than the obvious reason of better nutrition, what else is nutrient density good for?  It so happens that high nutrient dense food is the product of denser plants as well.  By denser, I mean literally the plant sap has more solids content than less dense plants.  These plants are more resistant to disease.  That is how true biological systems can work to survive without fungicides and pesticides. (easier said than done) End results of healthier plants is healthier food.  Systems that force nature will grow less dense plants, that is more watery sap, resulting in more susceptibility to disease, thus needing fungicides and pesticides.

So when I hear about a "study" lumping all organic food together, I want to know how that food was raised because it does makes a difference.  The labels "organic" and "conventional" have to be put  in proper context  before any inferences can be made. A truly scientific study would take this into account before making such a sweeping statement, but then there is a lot of that going on now days on both sides of this issue.

 In future posts, I will be looking at some simple tools that can be used to check  "density" of plants during the growing season.