A placebo dose of skepticality:

Background reading for understanding of Organic farming:

From eSkeptic

But Placebos Do Work, Don’t They?

...In a study of pain after dental surgery, patients were given either intravenous morphine or a saline placebo. If they were told that the saline was a powerful new painkiller, they got just as much relief as the patients who received morphine. In another study, all patients were given morphine for post-op pain, but only half were told they were getting it. The patients who didn’t know they were getting it only experienced half as much pain relief. In a study of acupuncture for post-op dental pain, there was no difference between the "real" acupuncture and placebo "sham" acupuncture groups, but when they asked patients which group they thought they were in, they discovered that those who believed they were in the "real" group reported significantly more pain relief than those who believed they were in the "sham" group — regardless of which group they were actually in!
We not only know placebos "work," we know there is a hierarchy of effectiveness:

* Placebo surgery works better than placebo injections
* Placebo injections work better than placebo pills
* Sham acupuncture treatment works better than a placebo pill
* Capsules work better than tablets
* Big pills work better than small
* The more doses a day, the better
* The more expensive, the better
* The color of the pill makes a difference
* Telling the patient, "This will relieve your pain" works better than saying "This might help."

In one study patients were given the same aspirin in either a brand name bottle or an unlabelled bottle; it worked better if it was labeled as a brand they recognized. Our pharmacy used to stock two different brands of allergy pills that were made in the same factory and were identical except that one was green and the other was blue. When a patient said it wasn’t working any more, we’d switch him to the other brand and it would start working again.

Just because it's nonsense doesn't mean it does nothing,