The Science of Organic:
Up Front and (The) Center

An interview with R. Mark Davis CEO, The Organice Centerf for Education


Since its inception in the fall of 2002, the Organic Center for Education and Promotion’s (the Center) team of organic industry professionals and scientists has been steadily building a solid foundation in which the organization can fulfill its mission to scientifically prove the organic benefit. With the completion of its second State of Science Review (SSR), the establishment of research grants and the appointment of the organization’s first chief executive officer, the Center is on the fast track in advancing its goal.

The Center, a non-profit organization that helps consumers, policy makers, researchers and the media understand the benefits organic products provide to society, aims to highlight credible, peer-reviewed scientific research about the organic benefit (www.organic-center.org). As a clearinghouse for this information, the Center tracks research— both past and current—analyzes the results, then provides it to the public, the media, and government agencies. The organization also works with leading researchers to prioritize and fund new scientific investigations into the organic benefit. Ultimately, by disseminating information that underscores the scientifically proven health benefits of organic products and production methods and by stimulating new research into the organic benefit, the Center aims to move the consumer marketplace toward organic, which will lead to improvements in the environment and public health.

With the recent appointment of R. Mark Davis as the Center’s first CEO and the continuing leadership of the Center’s Chief Scientist, Dr. Charles Benbrook, the organization’s staff, board of directors and scientific advisory committee is a stellar team that is well positioned to increase the momentum on the scientific front of organic. Davis, charged with overseeing all scientific research, marketing programs, outreach and development efforts for the Center, comes to the organization with a vast résumé of experience and a notable record of success in his 17 years of leading private sector corporations and nonprofits. Most recently, Davis was the CEO of the Heritage Harbor Corp. in Providence, RI, where he was recruited to lead a 21-member consortium to create a $100 million tourist destination.

In 1997, Davis was appointed the chief operating officer of a national environmental nonprofit, the Earth Conservation Corps. There he developed and implemented a $20 million five-year plan for revitalizing the Southeast District of Columbia, directed the creation and renovation of three $11.5 million community-learning centers that showcased renewable energy technology and green building design, and managed a $6 million salmon habitat environmental restoration program on five tribal reservations in Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

During the Clinton administration, Davis co-chaired Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater’s Anacostia Riverwalk Coalition that established a master plan and secured $65 million for the eight-mile walkway. He co-sponsored a national environmental education conference for Education Secretary Richard Riley that resulted in the establishment of an ombudsman for environmental education in the department. 

Mark spent some time with Organic Processing Magazine to share his views on the Center’s role in the organic industry, its current activities, and its plans for future initiatives.

OP: Mark, what drew you to this new position with the Center and what are some of your priorities and goals for the further development and growth of the Center?

Davis: I was drawn to the Organic Center for the integrity of its mission and my interest in the area of sustainable development. My priorities for the Center address four areas: to increase the number of State of Science Reviews published each year; to further develop the Center’s website as a clearinghouse of all the current research being conducted around the world that has an organic focus; to create a comprehensive education program for the medical community and consumers; and to secure funding outside of the organic industry to further validate the Center as a credible source of scientific information.

OP: The general media continues to publicize concerns raised by some food scientists that while there is a widespread belief that organic foods are safer and more nutritious than conventionally processed foods, there is little scientific evidence to support that belief, and in fact, there may be evidence that some organic foods pose a greater risk to consumers due to microbial contamination. How is the Center addressing these concerns?

Davis: The Center’s first SSR focused on a food safety issue—pesticide residues in conventional and organic food. Our findings explained why consumers hoping to reduce pesticide dietary exposure can do so most reliably by purchasing organic food. On the issue of microbial risks, most responsible scientists consider conventional and organic food to be comparably vulnerable to contamination. We agree. Some anti-organic activists may persist in arguing otherwise. If and as they do, we will be among the groups asking for and reviewing the data backing up their claims, if any.

OP: Both the latest SSR published in January 2005, Elevating Antioxidant Levels Through Organic Farming and Food Processing (see box, p. 44) and the first SSR released in May 2004, Minimizing Pesticide Dietary Exposure Through Consumption of Organic Food provide new insight into our current scientific knowledge about the organic benefit. Can you talk about the significance of these reports?

Davis: The first SSR provided a detailed, comprehensive analysis of all publicly available data on residues in organic and conventional foods. While our conclusion that organic food is far less frequently contaminated with pesticides was not surprising nor news in the organic community, compiling all the data and carrying out detailed statistical comparisons has helped solidify public confidence in this important benefit of organic food and farming.

The second SSR addresses a much less well-known benefit of organic food production—helping Americans increase their average daily intake of health-promoting antioxidants. With the media’s recent focus on diet-driven health problems, including obesity, diabetes, and some cancers, this is clearly a teachable moment among Americans looking to promote health through dietary changes. We are convinced that organic farming systems can substantially increase average antioxidant levels in a wide variety of foods. We are actively planning research to identify the components of organic farming systems that have the greatest potential to further boost average antioxidant levels. If we are successful with this line of research, we can begin to provide guidance to farmers and the food industry regarding how to deliver more health-promotion per calorie and per dollar spent. The Organic Center is not just focusing on quantifying contemporary organic benefits; we want to push the envelope and identify ways to expand the benefits.

OP: Can you tell us about the Center’s small grant program for research?

Davis: The Small Grants program offers grants up to $5,000 for research teams working to develop proposals for submission to public or private research programs. There are two areas of focus: impacts of organic production methods and systems on the nutrient density and antioxidant capacity of food; and development and application of novel experimental models and methods to measure and compare the nutritional quality and safety of organic and conventional foods using either in vitro or in vivo methods.

A major goal of the Center’s small grant proposal preparation program is to encourage scientists carrying out research largely focusing on one dimension of the performance of organic farming systems and/or the benefits of organic food to diversify the disciplinary scope of research teams, experimental designs and laboratory methods to allow additional dimensions of the benefits of organic food to be explored.

OP: What do you think is the next big trend in the organic industry?

Davis: The next big trend? That’s an easy question. It is the wave of exciting new science documenting the different dimensions of the organic benefit, and how the food industry will take advantage of this emerging science to gain leverage in the marketplace. Most of the cutting-edge science on organic food quality and health promotion is being done in Europe and Asia, which explains why U.S. companies are not among the leaders globally in actively marketing the health-promoting benefits of organic food.

Remember, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has still not backed away from its policy that states that there are no differences in the safety or quality of organic food compared to conventional food. Most of the rest of the world knows otherwise, and eventually “sound science” will prevail.