ComBio: Organic misconceptions and nutritional genomics

The comforting but questionable assumption that nature knows best strongly influences the food-buying preferences of Western consumers. The booming organic food industry takes the mindset a step further, by using only “natural” fertilisers and pesticides.

Unfortunately, hundreds of millions of people in the world’s poorer nations suffer because “natural” does not mean optimal nutrition. Professor Dean DellaPenna, professor of biochemistry at Michigan State University, would like to make it so.