Organic food
In response to Betsy Harts column on deflating organics.
About three quarters of conventionally grown fruits and vegetables contain small amounts of pesticides, usually more than one. The opposite was found by a study that looked at 94,000 samples of organically grown produce tested by the USDA.
Although it is very difficult to find a connection to cancer in humans caused by pesticides, mainly because we are exposed to tiny doses of hundreds of pesticides and other chemicals on a daily basis, a recent Agricultural Health study found that people who work with pesticides, such as farmers have higher rates of Parkinson disease, leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, cancers of the lip, stomach, skin, brain and prostate. In addition of the approximately 900 active ingredients found in the pesticides that can be legally used in the United States about 20 cause cancer in animals and are classified as human carcinogens.
Ms Hart goes on to elude that people who buy organic are touchy feely types on some sort of moral crusade to save the world, is she referring to the every day people who are buying organics in record amounts at WalMart and Safeway, who now have their own organic brands making organics more affordable. This is called supply and demand. America is paying attention.
Ms Hart can evoke the very photogenic Dr Sanjay Gupta to sheer up her weak claims that there is hardly any difference between organically grown produce and conventionally grown. And I will concede that the benifits of eating conventionally grown produce outweigh the negatives of consuming the pesticides you consume with them. However in May of this year a group of environmental scientists warned that babies exposed to pesticides could be more susceptible to ADD asthma and cancer.
Take away all the studies and cable news medical correspondents, and do your own research. The next time a large fly is buzzing around your kitchen Ms Hart, spray it with some raid and see what happens next, then tell me with a straight face that pesticides are safe. or you could kill it the organic way, by swatting it with a copy of your book. “It takes a parent”
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I will add to that...studies have shown that our environment, whether it be in the food we eat or the chemicals we breathe, are now being proven to be a causal factor in triggering Type 1 juvenile diabetes in those with weak immune systems. My daughter is one where I can find no genetic history of Type 1 in our family. Her diagnosis caught us off-guard and was the start of our own learning about chemicals and pesticides in our food.
Posted by cheryl on August 29, 2007 08:33 PMI will add that eating organic, while providing me with that warm, fuzzy feeling of moral superiority, i get the added bonus of delicious taste sensations with every bite. I have eaten both conventional and organic, and there is a HUGE taste difference. Organic tastes like food. Conventional tastes like, ____________. (that's right.. .nothing)
The analogy of the fly in the kitchen was brillian, btw. :-)
Posted by Sheila on August 29, 2007 10:47 PMIf you eat nothing but organic, all natural and range fed with no articicial coloring or MSG, then you run the risk of becoming a liberal, a democrat and a communist. You could even turn into a bean sprot or a granola bar that sports Birkenstocks, spikey green hair and a tongue ring and start hanging with sasquatch or the Geico caveman. Before you know it, you'll move to Havana and start selling carbon credits.
You are what you eat. Is that what you want?
Posted by Hank on August 30, 2007 10:26 AMMy doctor says I'm not getting enough pesticides in my diet. Why do you think I keep catching that nasty bug going around?
Posted by prima facie on August 30, 2007 12:33 PMPrima facie - that was funny:-)
Posted by cheryl on August 30, 2007 02:44 PM