I. Introduction

Scientific literature evaluating the safety and differences between conventional and organically grown produce can be found dating back to the 1940s, but the last 10 years or so have witnessed a significant expansion of study in the field. Consumer demand for organics has increased significantly and in lockstep, so have questions about the health implications and benefits of organic production methods (Greene 2005). In short, the question of whether or not organic cultivation of vegetables and fruit leads to improved nutrition is highly controversial. Comparative studies have been carried out but their methods and measurements are inconsistent and results are extremely scattered (Heaton 2001). The majority of existing studies focus on quantifying the levels of chemicals in food produced by conventional versus organic methods; there has been relatively little interventional research that goes on to look at the effects of organic production on human health. To give some sense of the issues involved: research on cultivation is plagued by confounding factors such as climate and soil condition, and research looking at effects of organics on human health is complicated further by lifestyle differences between populations (Adam 2001) and the unknowns of human metabolism.
Potential beneficial effects from organic cultivation can be divided into two buckets—a reduction in food hazards, and an increase in protective food components (Magkos et al. 2006). Most of the literature focuses on one or the other aspect, and likewise we have organized our summary along the same lines.