Organic pesticides may cause cancer and liver disease
Contact: Alex Avery of the Center for Global Food Issues, 540-337-6354, or aavery@rica.net.
Churchville, VA, Oct 23, 2002 — As new organic labeling laws take effect this week, the USDA has pointed out that it “makes no claim that organically produced food is safer or more nutritious than conventionally produced food.” However, this has not stopped organic marketers from making such claims.
“There is no doubt that organic food is better and safer than conventional food,” said Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association, to a Boulder, CO newspaper. This is the same Ronnie Cummins who for years has been scaring consumers about bovine growth hormone, which is found in all milk – even organic. And earlier this week, Katherine DiMatteo, executive director of the Organic Trade Association, told Reuters that eating organic food is “like using a seat belt or bicycle helmet.” DiMatteo went on to tell a Washington, DC audience that organic farmers grow crops “without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides.”
However, both toxic and persistent pesticides are fully approved for use in organic farming, including under the new USDA standards. These include copper sulfate — a highly toxic and persistent synthetic chemical recently banned in Europe due to human health and ecological concerns. The U.S. EPA considers copper sulfate a Toxicity Class I pesticide, requiring the signal words “Danger — Poison” on the label. Copper sulfate is approved under the USDA’s organic farming standards, even though it is highly toxic to fish, is known to cause liver disease in humans, and is a permanent soil contaminant. (Two out of the three technical reviewers recommended to the National Organic Standards Board in September 2001 that copper sulfate be barred, yet the NOSB approved its use anyway.)
Pyrethrum, a botanical nerve toxin which was also authorized under the USDA’s organic standards, was ruled a “likely human carcinogen” by the EPA in 1999. Still other “natural” pesticides, such as the insecticide rotenone, may also pose human health and environmental risks but the government does not test for residues of organic pesticides.
Earlier this year, researchers with the Organic Materials Review Institute and Consumers Union recommended that these natural pesticides undergo more rigorous testing to ensure that there were no undue risks to consumers.
Organic health risks from foodborne pathogens are an even greater concern. The bacteria E. coli O157:H7, a deadly pathogen found in every cattle herd the USDA has tested, is found in the manure which organic farmers use as a primary source of fertilizer. O157:H7 afflicts an estimated 20,000 people in the United States each year, killing up to 500; Consumer Reports wrote that free-range chickens carried three times as much salmonella contamination; and a team of Danish veterinarians recently reported that all 22 organic chicken flocks they investigated were infected with Campylobacter.
As former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman said in 2000 when labeling legislation was being developed, “The organic label is a marketing tool. It is not a statement about food safety.” People who are misleading consumers by claiming otherwise should take note.
For more information, see “Nature’s Toxic Tools: The Organic Myth of Pesticide-Free Farming” at http://www.cgfi.org.
