News Coverage
Crop residues cloud 'organic' label for meat, vegetables
Two years after the federal certified organic standards were put in place, food's purity is hard to ascertain
Published October 19, 2004
What makes some fruits and vegetables organic and why bother seeking them out? Are they really better for you?
Federal regulations define "certified organic" foods as those produced without pesticides, growth hormones, or other chemical additives. The seeds must be organic. The soil in which they are grown must be free of pesticide and chemical treatments for at least three years.
Some farmers are complying with the record-keeping and other federal procedures required to label their meats and produce as certified organic, but the rules, which took effect two years ago, have sent others screaming into retirement. More than a few small growers have continued to plant but stopped calling their chemical-free crops -- long certified in accord with state regulations -- organic.
Few conventionally grown crops exceed the U.S. Department of Agriculture's tolerance levels for chemical residues, but some contain much higher amounts than others.
And some experts insist there is no "acceptable level" of the chemicals, some of which may cause cancer or neurological damage, disrupt hormones, and linger in the environment, affecting generations to come.
Peaches, strawberries, apples and spinach lead a "dirty dozen" list of the most heavily pesticide-tainted produce, based on studies by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based consumer-advocacy organization.
Meanwhile, a review of USDA and California Department of Agriculture tests on 94,000 samples of more than 20 major crops was reported in the Food Additives and Contaminants Journal in 2002. It showed that 73 percent of conventional produce had pesticide residues. Residues of nine pesticides were found in samples of peaches and raspberries, eight in strawberries and apples.
And they don't just wash off. Though the USDA assures that properly washing or peeling produce eliminates or greatly reduces most residues, some are absorbed into foods.
Residues were found in only 23 percent of the organic items. (Organics accounted for 2 percent of the tested items.)
Why would organic produce have residues? Consider how many pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, not to mention waste and other pollutants, have been loosed on the environment over the last 50 years. Residues from them can blow onto organic fields or come from runoff from conventionally farmed land nearby.
Though DDT has been banned for agricultural use in the United States since 1972, and worldwide since the mid-'80s, traces of the pesticide still turn up in some crops. Studies of animals exposed to DDT have shown decreased fertility, reproductive abnormalities and high cancer rates.
Excluding persistent chemicals no longer in use, 13 percent of the organic produce tested positive for low levels of other residues.
The degree of danger of dietary exposure to pesticides is a hot topic of debate.
Rutgers University food scientist Joseph D. Rosen organized a symposium that addressed the question "Is organic food healthier than conventional food?" and related issues on Aug. 23 at the 228th American Chemical Society National Meeting in Philadelphia.
Rosen contended that, while many Americans believe organic food is better for them than conventional fare, scientific evidence does not support that belief.
Yet studies, including at least one at Rutgers, have reported that foods grown organically are more nutritious. The Rutgers study showed that organics have, on average, 87 percent more minerals than conventionally grown crops. Organic tomatoes were found to contain five times more calcium than conventional tomatoes.
There are arguments on both sides, but little that is conclusive enough to sway the thinking of either camp.
Ann Karlen, who runs the Fair Food farm stand in the Reading Terminal Market's Center Court in Philadelphia, has a different perspective.
"People are becoming more concerned with 'local' than with 'organic,' " she said. Fair Food promotes direct marketing by area farmers to restaurants, stores and consumers.
In the end, whatever your opinion on residues, fewer of them must equal less potential risk.