April McCarthy
Organic Trade Groups Finding Pesticides On Over 45 Percent of Organic Produce
Organic fresh fruits and vegetables tested in the past two years contained pesticide residue
The most common recommendation made by health experts in the area
of produce selection is to choose “organic” varieties for maximum
health benefits. We trust organic label certifications because they are
supposed to comply with organic standards set by national governments
and international organizations. Synthetic pesticides and chemical
fertilizers are not allowed in organic practices, but that’s not always
the case. Research by a Food Inspection Agency in Canada has found that
nearly half the organic fresh fruits and vegetables tested in the past
two years contained pesticide residue, violating maximum allowable limits for the presence of pesticides, the data shows.
Of the 45.8 percent of samples
that tested positive for some trace of pesticide. Most consumers of
organic food do not expect to hear that the produce they buy contains
pesticides, epsecially for the premium paid.
The results were not what Winnipeg organic consumer Mathieu Rey was expecting. “I would hope that the products are without pesticides. That is what I would be looking for,” Rey said in an interview. “I’m trusting the companies to provide a non-pesticide or pesticide-free product.”
As widespread as the pesticide residues were, they were still considerably less than the 78.4 percent of non-organic samples the inspection agency found containing pesticide residues, violating the allowable limits 4.7 percent of the time.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture that found nearly 20 percent of organic lettuce tested positive for pesticide residues piqued our interest. Lots of the lettuce contained quite a bit of spinosad, a pesticide marketed by Dow Chemical under the brand name.
Jeff Gillman, a professor of nursery management at the University of Minnesota, stated “when people are buying organic food, they often make the incorrect assumption that there are no pesticides. It’s true that organic production often uses fewer dangerous chemicals, but certain pesticides are allowed.”
It turns out that a key factor in chemicals being cleared for use on organic crops is whether they occur naturally. Spinosad, for example, comes from the soil bacterium Saccharopolyspora spinosa. It can fatally scramble the nervous systems of insects. It’s also poisonous to mollusks.