One issue that’s come to my attention since I started thinking more about my food is the debate about organic foods — are they healthier, and is the cost worth the potential benefits?
I’d love to buy organic food all the time, but it’s just not financially possible for me right now. That said, I believe in the health risks of pesticides on foods and would like to start moving in the direction of eating foods grown without them. But if I’m going to get a bang for my buck, which foods should I buy organic in order to protect myself from ingesting the most pesticides? Are some fruits and vegetables more susceptible to absorbing pesticides than others?
One list I found that can help answer this question is the Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides, which ranks 47 popular fruits and vegetables based on how many pesticides they contain, often after being washed and peeled. The list was put together by the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit group working on public health and the environment.
Would you like to know the direct benefit of buying organic versus conventional? Do you ever wonder what the cumulative impact of purchasing organic versus conventional products is over the course of a year? There’s a website out there that allows you to calculate the number of pounds of synthetic nitrogen, pesticides, and herbicides that are eliminated by choosing organic products.
The website is for Organic Valley Family Farmers. Organic Valley is a co-operative of farmers that produce dairy products, juice, eggs, meat, soy, fruit, and vegetables. It claims to be the largest organic farmer owned co-operative in North America, and you can review on their website their array of various products.
I’ll come back to the Mycotoxin issue soon. Instead, I’ll talk today about my serious worries about Climate Change.
People involved in world agriculture have no patience with the supposed “debate” about climate change. We are already seeing the effects, and the projections for the future are not encouraging. The most troubling feature of this phenomenon (and one that occurs even if you don’t believe that it is human-driven) is that we are facing increasing variation in climatic events. The yearly changes in average temperature or even annual rainfall may not be dramatic, but what we are anticipating is that there will be more extreme weather events. Climate averages are not what matters for crop production - Variation is. A few days of intense rain or heat at the wrong time can devastate a crop. A few weeks of drought can do the same. A single hail or frost event can make all the difference in what a farmer can harvest. We have always had those risks for farming and only long term data will demonstrate whether there has been an increasing trend as is predicted. For instance, It isn’t possible yet to say that the current, extended drought in Australia is caused by elevated greenhouse gasses, but some day we will know whether it was by looking back historically. Of course that will be too late. Our actions have to come now. The other huge threat from climate change is that water supplies will be more limiting in many areas that are irrigated today. Though that area is much smaller than rain-fed areas, it is very important to the food supply.
Some have predicted that “Global warming” and elevated CO2 will boost crop production in certain areas. There might be some occasions where higher temperatures will enhance some yields in normally cold areas, but if the warmth comes with other extreme weather events, the benefits will be diminished. It also turns out that plants can’t really take full advantage of high CO2 levels. Basically, there is no real “up-side” of climate change for farming.
The large-scale Organic dairy cooperative, “Organic Valley” has just sunk to a new low in the practice of “I will market against my farmer neighbors by stoking consumer’s fears.” They announced that they have launched an on-line calculator that is supposed to show you how much pesticide and fertilizer use is avoided when you buy their products. The news release essentially boils down to the message, “buy our products or you will probably die!” It also essentially accuses the 97.5% of us who don’t buy Organic of destroying the planet.
When talking about pesticides the press report says: “For adults, exposure through diet has been linked to infertility, Parkinson’s, testicular cancer, birth defects and much more. More than one million children in America age five and under ingest at least 15 pesticides daily. Early exposures are suspected in the sharp rise in health problems including autism, obesity, asthma, brain cancer and other childhood cancers.” This broad-brush assertion is misleading on so many levels that it is hard to know where to start. I’m not saying that there have never been any health issues with any pesticide anywhere, but we also have sufficient food in part because of pesticides. Though many people don’t know it, there are pesticides used on organic crops as well. Actually, the EPA has done a very good job of regulating pesticide use over the years so that people don’t need to be frightened about their food.
When dermatologist June Irwin first stood up in 1985 to speak at a Hudson, Quebec, town council meeting about the potential link between synthetic lawn pesticide and herbicide use and human and animal illnesses, she was written off as a flake. Irwin persisted, though, attending “every single town meeting in Hudson for six consecutive years - each time reading aloud a different letter with new observations and facts.” Eventually, she got her message across, and Hudson (population 5000) became the first town in North America to ban the use of these chemicals.
Lots of people in America are worried about their food - usually not about having enough food, but mostly about things that might be in their food that could potentially hurt them or their children. People also worry about the environmental impacts of food production. At one level I’m glad that people are engaged in this way and I do believe that there are legitimate concerns. I happen to think that some of the fear about food is misplaced.
I believe that much of this fear stems from a limited understanding of toxicology, molecular genetics, and also what farming is actually about today. Very few Americans have any real contact with farming. Frankly, some of this fear is also driven by the activities of businesses and organizations with a vested economic interest in alarming people.
I’ve been working as an agricultural scientist for 32 years. I’ve had the opportunity to learn about lots of crops grown all over the world. I’ve been involved with all sorts of different technologies. I’ve seen huge changes in agriculture over time. So from all of this experience, do I worry about anything to do with food? Yes, absolutely I do worry! But my list of worries is a little different from the norm
This is a follow-up to a previous blog about a pesticide reduction commitment that McDonalds has made and why that will be challenging in terms of their potato supplies and quality.
Roundup Ready® soybeans were commercialized in 1996 and quickly came to dominate plantings in the US, Argentina and Brazil. NewLeaf® insect resistant potatoes were also introduced that year.These potatoes were genetically engineered to produce the same Bt protein insecticide that was used as a spray-on product on potatoes and which was also approved for Organic use.The second generation of GMO potatoes was on its way around 1999, which also protected against the key potato leaf roll virus, which required spraying to control the aphids that spread the virus. Potato growers I interviewed at that time were excited about these technologies.Without having to spray for these two primary pests, biological control was largely taking care of the rest of their insect pest issues.They were also glad because they didn’t have to spend the money on most of their normal insecticide sprays.
This seemingly happy scenario came to an abrupt halt in 2000.Anti-GMO activism was starting to build and the leadership of McDonald’s got an arrogantly insufficient response from the leadership of Monsanto when they asked what was going to be done about the situation.McDonald’s defaulted to the “brand protection” mode and with three phone calls to the major frozen French fry suppliers, killed GMO potatoes in the US and Canada (Frito Lay and other brands joined in the defacto ban).That was only possible because increasing GMO potatoes was so much slower than increasing seeded crops and so only 5% of the crop was biotech.McDonald’s and all other fast food restaurants could never afford to ban the GMO ingredients that were in their frying oil or high fructose corn sweeteners because biotech adoption was so rapid for soy and corn.So McDonald’s still sells many products from GMO crops, just not potatoes because that would be much higher profile.There is absolutely no health risk issue here, but there is at least some irony.
Companies with prominent, valuable, consumer “brands” are prime targets for activists because these entities cannot afford to ignore threats that might hurt their public image.Remember Nike and the foreign “sweat shop” issue.Consumer brands don’t get much bigger or more valuable than that of McDonald’s. To its credit, based on outside pressure or not, McDonald’s has provided leadership on nutritional, packaging and animal wellness issues over the years.
Recently, McDonald’s has come under lawsuit pressure from a number of groups over the issue of pesticide use on potatoes – one of the signature offerings of this chain.They had to agree to work to reduce those applications.It would be best to focus on reductions of the pesticides with the greater associated risks, but unfortunately the litigants probably don’t understand that there are huge differences between pesticides.
There are actually a lot of pesticides used on potatoes compared to other crops grown at that scale.One of the main reasons is that it is incredibly difficult to breed new potato cultivars.I’ve blogged about the difficulties of improving a non-hybrid crop like wheat, but that is nothing in comparison to potatoes.First of all, it is not a seeded crop.It is actually a “cloned” crop grown from “seed pieces” and it grows from the “eyes” that occasionally sprout in your pantry.It is possible to breed via the flowers and seed, but it is very slow. Potato cultivars that are 20 to more than 100 years old dominate the industry.Breeding in pest resistance isn’t really an option.
Alright. I know that the title of this post is controversial for this website, but I’m serious about this. Read a little further and this might not seem so radical.
Over the last 40 years I have gardened in Denver, Davis California, Western Colorado, Delaware and in San Diego county. By far the most challenging place to garden has been in San Diego. We have no winter here to knock back the pest populations. We have lots of misty, cloudy days in May and June because we are only 2 miles from the ocean. It is pretty much of a pest and disease heaven. I am constantly fighting pest issues in my garden and vineyard here, and I often wish I had better tools to do that.
There is new evidence that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) may be a culprit in what is known as Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), or the disappearance of honeybees.
Colony Collapse Disorder has killed off more than one-third of the bees in the United States.
Beekeepers know that when there isn’t nectar readily available to their hives, as in the winter months, some turn to supplements. Traditionally it was (guess what) honey. But that’s what you want to harvest, so many turn to cheaper substitutions. Cane or beet sugar, mixed with water, was seen as acceptable as long as you removed the part of the comb containing the sugar once bees started producing again. It was important to keep the bees fed so they’d keep brooding and ready to produce honey.
Except it hasn’t only been the occasional sugar-water substitution. We’ve substituted the substitute. People have also turned to high fructose corn syrup.
And once again, it seems our need for convenience and affordability has cost us: a new study shows that a contaminant from heat-exposed HFCS may be killing off the bees.
Herbs and spices like thyme, rosemary and mint, usually used to flavor food, can also offer a green alternative to synthetic pesticides.
Research has shown that oils derived from the herbs interfere with insect nervous systems, causing them to spasm haphazardly until they die. Best of all, these all-natural pesticides are inexpensive to produce.
