On the heels of a Stanford University study that found little evidence supporting the claim that organic food was healthier, Whole Foods CEO Walter Robb is defending the decision to eat organic.
Yahoo!'s Daily Ticker blog spoke with Robb, who disagreed with the study's findings:
"I've been an organic gardener all my life…and I can see..the vitality of the food from my own experience of raising vegetables."
Robb protested that the authors failed to include more research that found "the nutrient intensity of organic food was 20% to 50% greater" than that of conventional foods.
He also stressed that there are reasons to go organic beyond health, including the environment and treatment of animals and workers.
Earlier this month, HuffPost spoke with Charles Benbrook, chief scientist at The Organic Center in Oregon, who also expressed concern about the study's methods:
"The Stanford team is a bunch of doctors and clinicians, and they took on a project completely outside their training and experience," added Benbrook, who published a critique of the review. "Unfortunately, their study doesn't shed any light on the subject -- just a lot of smoke."
Organic food continues to grow in popularity -- in 2011, sales totaled an astounding $29.3 billion.
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