Convert all the nation's acreage devoted to produce crops and reduce pesticide dietary risk by 97%. Oh yeah, and convert all the imports, too. That's the claim in this press release from the Organic Center, a Boulder non profit dedicated to advancing organics. From the March 11 press release: The Organic Center today releases an historic report that concludes converting the nation’s eight million acres of produce farms to organic would reduce pesticide dietary risks by about 97 percent.The Organic Center provides the first-ever quantitative estimate of the degree to which pesticide risks from food can be eliminated through adoption of organic farming methods in “Simplifying the Pesticide Risk Equation: The Organic Option,” a new State of Science Review by Dr. Charles Benbrook, the Organic Center’s chief scientist.Less than three percent of the nation’s cropland produces fruits and vegetables. Yet, according to The Organic Center, these crops account for most of the pesticide risks from dietary exposure in domestically produced foods. The 97 percent risk reduction can only be achieved if converting domestic cropland of organic is coupled with consumers choosing only imported produce that is certified organic.The estimates are based on up-to-date pesticide residue data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s current methods for estimating pesticide dietary risks.Founded in 2002, The Organic Center is a non-profit devoted to presenting and providing peer-reviewed scientific evidence on how organic products benefit human health and environmental quality.Other findings and information shared in the report include:
An analysis of the significantly greater pesticide risks linked to consumption of imported conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables, as compared to domestically-grown produce.
Rankings of dietary risk levels in select conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables, arranged to help guide consumers seeking to minimize pesticide risks.
Suggestions on how to meet dietary guidelines for fruit and vegetable intake in the winter, while also reducing pesticide exposures.
An overview of pesticide residues found in milk.
The Organic Center is offering a free download of its report beginning today at www.organic-center.org.
Pesticide Residues are Hard to Avoid
Driving pesticide risks downward is important because, according to pediatrician Alan Greene, M.D., chairman of The Organic Center’s board of directors, “Recent science has established strong links between exposure to pesticides at critical stages of prenatal development and throughout childhood, and heightened risk of pre-term, underweight babies, developmental abnormalities impacting the brain and nervous system, as well as diabetes and cancer.”
“Yes, with surprising frequency, all Americans, including infants and children, are exposed to pesticides via their diet and drinking water,” added Dr. Benbrook.In fact, Dr. Benbrook noted, recent USDA pesticide residue and food consumption surveys show that most people consume three to four residues daily just through fruits and vegetables.
The 97% Solution
The Organic Center bases its 97 percent risk reduction estimate upon a “Dietary Risk Index” (DRI), developed by the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). The EPA-OIG used the index in a 2006 appraisal of the impacts of the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) on pesticide dietary risks.The Organic Center applied the same DRI to estimate the changes that would occur in risk levels if all produce were grown using organic methods. The Organic Center concluded that a 100 percent reduction in risk is unattainable because of the widespread use of pesticides on conventional farms, and the movement of pesticides in the air and water onto organic farm fields.“While it will take years to convert most American fruit and vegetable farms to organic methods, the process is well underway and accelerating fast, especially in the Western U.S.,” Dr. Benbrook noted. Already, organic produce accounts for nearly ten percent of retail sales of fresh fruits and vegetables. Several major fresh produce grower-shippers have recently announced aggressive timetables to convert all or most of their fruit and vegetable acreage to organic, assuming consumer demand continues to grow.The report points out that a substantial reduction in pesticide exposure will remove, or markedly lesson, an important risk factor for several serious public health problems.
Helping Consumers Minimize Pesticide Exposures
The Organic Center’s report also presents lists of fresh fruits and vegetables that score the highest using the DRI. Two lists cover domestically grown fruits and vegetables, while two others apply to imported produce that typically enters the U.S. market in the wintertime.
The organization hopes consumers will follow these lists in determining which organic fruits and vegetables will most significantly improve their personal pesticide dietary risk equation.
Complete Dietary Risk Index can be found in the full report, downloadable at www.organic-center.org.
TK: It seems as if this report recycles some of the lists of conventional and imported produce with pesticide residues that we have seen in the past, without bothering to mention the minute levels of residues that are detected. Also left unaddressed: what dietary risks, if any, result from the use of "organic" elements used to control pests on fruits and vegetables? More scrutiny of this headline research is due, and I'll be looking for reaction on the Web about this report.Labels: FDA, organic, Western Growers
2 Comments:
I strongly support organic production in the US, and this is the sort of research that needs to be done more often, even if its goals cannot be accomplished for years. Frankly, most research conducted today is biased toward conventional production.
However, we should be careful to note some qualifications. First, while pesticide/herbicide residues have been shown to be harmful or potentially harmful, that doesn't mean they are the only source of agricultural pollution. Nitrate and phosphate pollution is also damaging to human health and the environment, but more of it comes from row crop production in the Midwest than produce fields in the Western US. This is particularly true with regard to water quality issues. I think we often see a increased focus on pollution on food products we consume directly, such as f/v, with less focus on row crops that are mainly used to feed animals (or now for ethanol). That's unfortunate. I'm not saying the Organic Center is guilty of this, but it does seem to be a mindset that occasionally takes hold.
And if we're going to buy organics from overseas (which I would not advocate), we had better make sure they're actually organic. More testing is needed on imported organics. And if we use government dollars to subsidize organic production, which I think is a good idea, it should be for domestic production.
Also, the use of antibiotics/hormones in meat production is a huge problem that could be mitigated through organic practices. I think that will be a major focus of health groups in the coming years, and I don't see it addressed in the press release.
Of course, these issues are beyond the scope of this report and point to the need for more research, and not just from the Organic Center. This is the sort of report that most regard as a pie-in-the-sky exercise, but gives real evidence to explain why certain practices are better for human health.
The 97% solution creates more problems than it solves. For one, the negative impact of fruit and vegetable price increases would be so detrimental to consumer nutrition well-being as to obliterate any of the perceived benefit.
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