Sweet praise for organic apples
19 April 2001
Sweet praise for organic apples
By FWi staff
ORGANIC apples are sweeter, better for the environment and more profitable than conventional counterparts, according to new research.
Scientists from Washington State University, Pullman, compared conventional, organic and integrated apple production systems over five years.
Their results, published in the journal Nature, reported that all three systems gave similar yields.
They reported that organic and integrated systems had higher soil quality and potentially lower negative environmental impact than the conventional system.
And the team, led by Dr John Reganold, claim that the organic system produced sweeter and less tart apples.
They also claim organic systems offered higher profitability and greater energy efficiency.
The organic system ranked first in environmental and economic sustainability, the integrated system second and the conventional system last, they report.