A study published in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment shows that pesticide contamination is common in the Indian city of Hyderabad. Researchers examined 195 foods to assess the dietary intake of pesticides among fiver socioeconomic groups within the city, and found that residues were present on 51 percent of the samples examined. Of the 13 different… Read More ›

  A recent study shows that adopting organic farming techniques can improve farmers’ livelihoods, enhance food security, and reduce poverty in India. Researchers in Germany examined the livelihoods of 100 households cultivating tomatoes using organic versus conventional methods to determine whether organic agricultural methods are more beneficial to growers than conventional methods. Their results showed… Read More ›

A study published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology found that mothers with higher exposure to organochlorine (OC) pesticides such as DDT affected fetal motor activity. Fetal motor activity is an indicator of how the fetus is maturing and is a way to evaluate how exposures to persistent contaminants may be affecting the developing… Read More ›

A study published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology has found a link between pesticide exposure and food allergies. Food allergies are on the rise and currently affect one in 13 children in the U.S.  To examine potential causes of this phenomenon researchers at Montefiore Medical Center looked at whether contact with pesticides… Read More ›

A new study published in The Cochrane Collaboration shows that probiotic use, such as the consumption of yogurt, can decrease the risk of diarrhea from Clostridium difficile bacteria after antibiotic ingestion. The study was led by Joshua Goldenberg, from Bastyr University, who found that taking probiotics reduced the chance of having some of the effects… Read More ›

  A study by Dr. Bender and Dr. Ingver at the Jõgeva Plant Breeding Institute looked at how agricultural management affects yield and nutrient content of carrots. They compared marketable yield, vitamin C content, and total sugar content of organic and conventional carrots over three growing seasons in Estonia. Findings showed there were no significant… Read More ›

A team of European researchers has released a study examining the environmental benefits of organic dairy production. The researchers compared organic to conventional dairy farms to measure several environmental variables. They found that organic dairy farm management resulted in greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 6,188 kg of CO2 per hectare when compared to conventional management…. Read More ›

The Centre for Organic Food and Farming conducted a study to investigate methods that can be adopted by organic growers to decrease the emissions of greenhouse gasses. Their findings highlighted four areas of need: improved nitrogen efficiency, higher yields, increased soil carbon stocks, and resource efficiency. Nitrogen efficiency is critical to decreasing greenhouse gas emissions,… Read More ›

  A study from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences found that conversion to organic farming in Punjab and Uttarakhand resulted in higher agricultural profitability. This was especially evident in low-input production systems such as those grown in Uttarakhand, because organic agriculture improved soil health through the use of on-farm fertility sources, such as animal… Read More ›