Organic Farmers Cry Foul on Toxic Corn Meal Recall
November 10, 2003
I’ve just received a harsh critique-from the President of California’s organic farmers- on a recent column about Britain recalling all six tested brands of organic corn meal. All six contained very high levels of fumonisin, a natural fungal toxin linked to cancer, kidney and liver diseases, and birth defects.
The organic corn meal brands averaged over 9,000 parts per billion, nearly 20 times more fumonisin than allowed by the European safety standard. Twenty UK conventional corn meals were far below the EU limit, averaging a relatively tiny 130 parts per billion.
Brian Leahy, president of the California Certified Organic Farmers, quotes the Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety, to wit: “there is no direct evidence that fumonisins cause adverse health effects in humans.”
Evasive, Mr. Leahy. You know very well there’s evidence from animal tests that fumonisins are dangerous.
Leahy protests, “As the language of the FDA decision makes very clear, however, making conclusions about human effects based entirely on animal data is a tenuous proposition at best. . . . The numbers set by the FDA can be interpreted as ‘we feel pretty confident that at this level, pretty much no one out there is going to get sick.’”
Thank you, Mr. Leahy, for finally admitting the truth. That’s exactly the point I have been making for years about the tiny levels of pesticide residues over which your industry has been needlessly scaring the American public for 50 years. Your claim that conventional food is dangerous rests entirely on the rat tests you just dismissed as unimportant-when the regulators indicted an organic food.
But the organic indictment was for a felony, not a misdemeanor. The US regulatory standard for pesticides is set by taking the largest dose at which nothing happened to the rats and dividing it by 100 to 1,000 for extra safety. Thus, the Maximum Contaminant Levels allowed for synthetic pesticides are a tiny fraction of the No Observed Effect Levels.
Lab studies show that fumonisin begins to cause cancer in rodents at 25,000-50,000 parts per billion. The recalled organic corn meals were contaminated with one-fifth to one-third the level proven to cause cancer in rodents! Moreover, fumonisins are suspected of causing liver and kidney damage at levels lower than 50,000 ppb-meaning consumers may have been at risk for permanent damage to internal organs from the organic corn meals.
The FDA says a part per billion of a safety-tested synthetic pesticide is far safer than letting the insects and fungus produce lots of highly dangerous natural toxins such as fumonisin and aflatoxin. Organic farmers apparently disagree.
Mr. Leahy argues that it’s unfair to say organic farmers leave their fields “unprotected.” He claims organic farmers “utilize many methods other than the use of conventional practices to control insect damage.” Right, but 20 times more toxin than the safety standard means these methods offer little protection for crops or consumers.
My column also criticized the organic movement for claiming, with no proof, that its products were safer and more nutritious than conventional foods. Mr. Leahy’s answer was a con game.
“There is evidence to suggest that organic foods are more nutritious, and just as safe, as conventional foods (and if the concern is pesticide residues, safer than conventional foods). Unlike the Averys, however, the organic community is not staking broad claims on limited, but mounting evidence.”
Unfortunately for Mr. Leahy, the latest “evidence” of organic nutritional superiority- from the British Soil Association-has just been dismissed by the scientists at Britain’s Food Standards Agency. They say there’s not even a suspicion of evidence, let alone “limited, but mounting” evidence.
Meanwhile, Mr. Leahy’s own CCOF website claims, “Choosing to eat organic food is one of the simplest, most pleasurable ways to protect and promote your health.”
The real dangers in our food are natural bacteria and natural toxins. The real danger to nature is that organic farmers would need the entire world’s land to grow our food (because they have to grow their own fertilizer too.) High-tech, high-yield farming is the answer to both food safety and environmental preservation. Organic is the answer to nothing more important than a crossword puzzle question.
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