Does organic mean healthier?
The answers on organics may just surprise you
By Michael Downey
Like a growing number of Canadians, Jennifer Kavur shops regularly for organic groceries. She buys organic tomatoes, lettuce, apples and many other items. And the 31-year-old Toronto editor pays dearly for them: $2.99 for a head of organic cauliflower compared to the conventionally grown version, which costs just 99 cents. Her reasoning for spending more? "It's better for you, healthier. You don't get all those pesticides."
Organic food is still a niche market, representing just over two percent of all food sold. According to Consumer Reports, it costs consumers on average about 50 percent more than conventionally grown foods. But organic food is more visible today than ever before, with most large supermarket chains in Canada now offering dedicated organic sections.
A reason for the surge in popularity in organic foods? Like Kavur, most Canadians say they buy organic because it's healthier, according to an ACNielsen survey. But are they right?
Eighty-five percent of organic food sold in Canada is grown in the United States. Wherever grown, no food - whether organic or conventional - can be sold in Canada unless it meets Canadian standards for legal pesticides and for residue limits. Says Health Canada's Paul Duchesne, "Our main interest is to ensure that both types of food are safe to consume."
Organic food is brought to market according to the National Standard of Canada for Organic Agriculture, principles "that endorse production and management practices that contribute to the quality and sustainability of the environment and ensure the ethical treatment of livestock." One of the main differences is supposed to be that organic produce is not sprayed with synthetic pesticides.
Yet, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) says, "the term organic is not synonymous with pesticide-free." Several large U.S. studies have found traces of synthetic pesticides on as much as 25 percent of organic foods. (There have been no similar major studies done on organic foods in Canada, but the CFIA found that ten percent of all Canadian-grown produce - conventional and organic - had pesticide residues.)
Some of those residues found on organic food may be due to "uncontrolled contamination," says Andy Hammermeister of the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada at Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro. That could be the result of the wind blowing synthetic pesticides onto organic crops, prior use of synthetic pesticides on the land, old or used spraying equipment, and so on. But it's not always by accident that pesticides end up on organic foods. "Most people don't realize that organic farmers are allowed to use a wide array of natural, non-synthetic chemicals as pest killers," says Alex Avery, director of research and education at the Centre for Global Food Issues, a United States-based Hudson Institute group that researches agricultural and environmental concerns. Many conventional farmers, meanwhile, are actually using less pesticide. In Ontario, for example, pesticide application has dropped by 50 to 60 percent overall since 1983, according to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture.
And just because pesticides are natural doesn't mean they aren't toxic. The natural pesticide rotenone, for instance, found in a number of plants, causes Parkinson's symptoms when injected into rats. Pyrethrum, derived from dried chrysanthemum heads, has been classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as having "suggestive evidence of carcinogenicity." For humans, Avery says, "the natural poisons pose the same theoretical, but remote, dangers as the synthetic."
But consumers need not be alarmed by pesticide residues, natural or synthetic, left behind on both organically and conventionally grown produce. For one thing, most comes off en route from the farm to your shopping cart – in the process of trimming, shipping and washing. According to Christine Bruhn, director of the Center for Consumer Research at the University of California, Davis, washing alone removes from 70 to 99 percent of pesticide residues. After washing, any traces left are minute. In fact, we're exposed, on average, to only about 0.9 milligrams of synthetic pesticides daily.
Compare that to our daily consumption of built-in pesticides that all plants produce naturally: roughly 1,500 milligrams a day. "And the proportion of nature's pesticides that cause cancer in rodents is the same as for synthetic pesticides," says Bruce Ames, a bio-chemistry and molecular-biology professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
What about what's left after processing and washing? According to Peter MacLeod, executive director of crop protection chemistry at CropLife Canada, a trade association of various biotech and pest-control industries, the safety margins when testing pesticides are huge. First, a "harmless dose" - the greatest amount that can be ingested without adverse effects. "Then pesticides are approved in amounts that ensure no one receives over one one-hundredth to one one-thousandth of that harmless dose, based on a worst-case scenario of maximum exposure from all possible sources," explains MacLeod.
Such rigorous testing means very few pesticides ever make it all the way through to approval: After an average of nine years of testing, only one active pesticide ingredient is ultimately approved out of every 140,000.
Far more dangerous than pesticides is E. coli, which a University of Minnesota study published in the Journal of Food Protection in 2004 found to be more prevalent in organic produce than in conventional. The study looked at 32 organic and eight conventional farms. It found the overall presence of E. coli in the organic produce tested "was approximately sixfold greater than in conventional fruits and vegetables." And unlike pesticides, washing doesn’t remove the E. coli threat.
So when you're calculating your grocery budget and trying to determine whether to spend more on organics, consider this: Both the United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency and its counterpart in France have found no proof of greater safety or nutrients in organic food. In fact, the United Kingdom's advertising industry gives these guidelines to organic-food marketers: Unless they can show convincing evidence that organic food is healthier, safer or tastes better than conventionally grown food, they should not make those claims. The bottom line: If you're buying organic because you assume it's better for you, you might just be wasting your money.
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Adapted from Reader's Digest Canada; March 2008
Hallo Mesha,
The best and much healthier are the ones you grow yourself. I do!
You don`t even need to dig up your backyard. You can grow a great variety of vegetables in above ground wood boxes with wood planks from discarded wooden crates in a sunny spot. You can build wooden boxes to 18`` high as garden seating spots for entertaining friends, or simply an escape for your family and loved ones!
For ease of work, I improve native soil with peet moss and steer manure. Natural Canadian product - potash is probably the most important fertilizer required.
You may harvest lettice, spinich, swiss-chard in 4 to 6 weeks, cuccumbers and zucinees in a little more time, sweet corn and beens from 59 to 77 days. The best honey dew I ever tasted were grown with a freshly plowed yard on railway Right-of-Way behind my home when I lived in Renfrew, Ontario. That`s without any fertilizer added. Native soil was full of natural fertilizer ac cumulated in the ground for centuries.
Believe me. It`s worth your time, and a very rewarding exercise!
Try it! It will be a healthier and tastier experience.
Your friendly P. Eng, and former Director of Parks Department of a major Canadian city.
Dear Lynn,
Excellent point!
Now, from my experience removing asbestos from an operating office tower in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
We hermatically sealed the area.
In a ready room, replace street wear and all wear with a coverall made for asbestos removal, with sealed boots, gloves, and special breathing gear.
Then enter the removal area through a double "door" system. Did what needed to be done as the supervising Professional Engineer.
Exit through another "double door" system, took a hearty shower. Put on my street clothes, and return to outside world.
Similarly, people working with pesticides and fertilizers can protect themselves with coverall, sealed footwear and gloves, nose and mouth masks designed for the purpose, and enjoy a hearty head to toe wash afterworks can proove to be equaly effective.
For confirmation and safety, please by all means and ensure yourself by checking with all appropriate provincial and federal governing ministries and agencies.
I am speaking as a retired Professional Engineer, and former Director of Parks in a major Canadian city.
This is regarding Lynn's concern of worker health! A health and important issue! Thank you for bringing this up!
From my actual work experience of removing asbestos from an office tower with people still working therein as usual, the issue can readily be under control.
From my asbestos removal experience, I changed into asbestos coverall
Very interesting article. I never bought organic stuff. I do better! I grow them myself. It is easy!
A sunny part of my backyard is roto-tilled with a rental unit; pitmoss and steer manure added. Immediately, I have easily workable soil that retains moisture. This you need to do only once.
I plant seeds of different vegetables I enjoy to give me variety and flavour. Lettice, swish-chard, and spinach take only 4 weeks to be ready for the table, sweet corn, cucumber, honey dew, and zukinee from 59 to 77 days, coliflower may take a little longer. Try your own favourite. It's only $1.99 per bag of seeds.
Horticultural research including cross polination etc., genetics of vegetables has improved for centuries. By all means, go to the Library. It's full of knowledge just for your picking! As for me, genetically modified products may not be as nasty as people want you to believe. Note: fertilizers easily to wash off. Not so for E-Coli! Growing your own is the best!
Planting is very easy! Not even have to dig your yard. Most annual vegetables do well in a raised wooden box.
Home grown vegetables taste like real vegetables, cheaper, and better for you. One side benefit is that it is a great family project bringing the family colser. It's healthier too!
Spacing the seeds is no chore. I tie a light colour string, lenth of the rows, to two screw drivers, or wooden sticks, and mark off spacing with a dark felt pen. With a wooden dowel length of how deep seeds need to be planted, I punch holes and into each I place a couple of seeds. Then I smooth out the soil, and water. I fertilize with store bought fertilizer.
Just wait to enjoy fruit of your creation!
How do I know this?
I was Director of Parks at one of top 10 Canadian cities. Being P. Engs help me to be systematic and analytical.
Doesn't anyone care about farm workers and the environment. I don't buy organic produce because I think it's better for me, but because it is better for workers, who aren't exposed to pesticides, in Mexico children in areas using pesticides show signs of behavioural and learning problems. Farm workers are exposed to much higher levels of pesticide than are consumers of produce. As well, the wide spread spraying of pesticides kills numerous untargeted species of insects and animals, including birds, bees (which are necessary for fertilizing crops),rodents and animals who eat them. Pesticide runoff into streams can harm fish and amphibians who are especially sensitive to many pesticides. All of these species are part of the food web that supports human life, and pesticides are poisions. Although organic farms may use some natural pesticides that are also toxic(but tend to degrade faster then most synthetic pesticides), they use techniques that build the soil and promote the health of the ecoysystem on which we all rely for our resources (fisheries, forests, etc..).
Nobody has commented on the taste factor.....I enjoy eating fruits and veggies that actually taste like they are supposed to!! And I don't have to worry about GMO......as our produce isn't marked whether it has been genetically modified....at least I know an apple is an apple and an orange is an orange when I buy organic!
I was one of 8 kids born in Dublin Ireland. We all lived in a one-room flat. No toilet (communal out the back) of the tenament. All through World War Two… We had nothing. Food-wise, we ate anything that came along. We never saw a glass of milk, etc. We got zero Xmas/B-day gifts. All these years later we are all extremely healthy and have 20/20 vision. Makes one wonder about life, eating healthy, stress, etc, doesn’t it?
Well I agree whit you, but still I think that by buying organic foods we make the right choice, at least the concentrations of pesticides and other chemicals are more reduced, this way they are healthier. It is true that organic doesn't mean pesticide free, they get contaminated involuntary, by air or water streams. Keep the good work.
Has it been considered to have the same levels of food inspection from all countries (prior to rcvg?) Organic is healthier for you - but is it as safe when coming come another country ? Higher standards are required & would also like to see BEST Before Dates on all foods includg can goods etc. THANKS !!