Criticisms and Frequent Misconceptions about Organic Agriculture: The Counter-Arguments

Part A: " Organic foods are not healthier than non-organic foods/Organic foods are unhealthy " Misconception Number 1: Pesticide residues in conventional foods are always within safe levels. Summary of Counter-Arguments-A significant percentage of conventional food products contain pesticide residues in excess of legally-defined, maximum, authorized residue limits in Europe and the US.-As a result, most people carry pesticide residues in their bodies (100% of the people tested in the US), but the level can be drastically reduced by the adoption of an organic diet.-Legally defined " maximum residue limits " are by no means a guarantee of zero health risk.-In developing countries, pesticide residues in food are uncontrolled by the government most of the time. Details of Counter-Arguments • In industrialized countries, the great majority of conventional food products admittedly exhibit pesticide residues below the legally-defined, maximum authorized residue limits. However, there is always a small percentage of conventional food produce that exceeds these levels. For instance, the 2002 through 2004 annual and quarterly reports of the Pesticides Residues Committee of the UK consistently show that approximately one percent of conventional food samples contain pesticide residues above the maximum permitted levels. 1 The annual pesticides monitoring reports of the Food and Veterinary Office of the European Commission also report elevated levels of pesticide residues. Specifically, the 2001, 2002, and 2003 reports (corresponding to a total of approximately 46,000 food samples) show that 3.6, 5.2, and 5.1 percent, respectively, contained pesticide residues above the maximum residue limit (MRL). Similarly, in the US, the 2001 through 2003 annual reports of the Pesticide Program Residue Monitoring of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) shows an overall " violative " level of pesticide residues between one and two percent for domestic food samples and between four and six percent for imported food samples. • Legally defined " maximum residue limits " (MRL) are not a guarantee of " zero health risk. " First, MRLs set by governments are not always set on the basis of health criteria. For instance, in the EU, MRLs (expressed in mg/kg) are based on Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) data. Therefore, foods derived from commodities that comply with the respective MRLs are INTENDED to be toxicologically acceptable. In this case, MRLs are just indicators of the violation or non-violation of Good Agricultural Practices, not an indication of health risk. In Canada, the regulation establishes 0.1 ppm as the …