The devil is in the details of the study. It was a meta-study, which means they did no direct research themselves, but relied on previous studies. Many previous studies compared conventional to organic produce by growing said “organic” produce in the same chemically burned over university test plots used to test conventional methods for decades. And even this study has a very large IF right at the beginning–IF you are an adult you might not have a health benefit. What about if you are a growing child? The other very odd thing about the study is that there was no finding in the related past studies of different nutrition content. If this is the case, why does organic produce taste better? And how many years was the organic produce raised on those plots before testing the nutrition content? As years pass, the soil microorganisms gain strength in good soil and produce more vigorous, healthy plants.
My last comment is that current organic methods are often employed thinking of the farm as a widget factory, and don’t rely on the strengths of permaculture methods, or interspeciated stacking to naturally increase yields on the same plot of land. To wit, a 1 acre organic farm can mix the “three sisters” (corn, beans, and squash) because everything is hand-harvested. This planting method synergistically increases yields. I’m no expert, but I would bet money that you can find small organic farms that get quadruple the food yield per acre compared to large scale “organic” farms.
