At the grocery store, consumers are given the option to buy conventionally-produced food or its (often pricier) organic counterpart. The distinction between these two choices is closely regulated. For food manufacturers to label their items as organic, the products must meet the standards set by organizations and governments. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) certifies foods as “organic” if they are shown to be “protecting natural resources, conserving biodiversity, and using only approved substances.” In the U.S. and Canada, any food labeled as “organic” must be devoid of GMOs.
Organic foods, by that definition, can’t have had synthetic fertilizers or pesticides applied to them for three years before they are harvested. But just because a crop fits the definition of organic doesn’t mean it’s totally free of fertilizer residue. USDA organic certification allows for natural substances such as pheromones, vaccines for animals, and a limited number of natural pesticides as well, but a 2011 survey by the USDA showed 39 percent of 571 organic samples were found to have pesticide residues, but well below tolerance set out by the EPA. And yet, a 2005 market trends survey by Whole Foods found that more than 70 percent of consumers bought organic food to avoid pesticides.
Exposure to a little pesticide isn’t necessarily toxic for people. “The big question from a toxicological standpoint is how much are we exposed to? The first principle of toxicology is the dose makes the poison,” Winter said. While studies have shown that conventional, non-organic foods do indeed come with a greater likelihood of exposure to pesticide residues compared to their organic counterparts, the health risks of exposure are often exaggerated by organizations such as the Environmental Working Group and food safety associations. “The levels we are exposed to are far, far less than levels that would be expected to cause any harm to our population. So reducing our exposure a little bit more — in this case by purchasing organic food — really isn’t going to cause any appreciable health benefit to us as consumers,” Winter added.
That is not to say pesticides pose no risk at all. Since the 1930s, synthetic pesticides, most famously DDT, were linked to birth defects and depleted biodiversity. People working in the fields, who spend the most time exposed to pesticides, are often hospitalized for related illnesses; in 2006 in the state of California, as many as 1,310 people were hospitalized due to pesticide-related illnesses and injuries, and 23 of them died. Today, scientists are still working to understand how high doses of pesticides can affect children’s development.
Little of this applies to the average consumer, however. First, farmers use fewer pesticides today than they did even a decade ago, and the pesticides themselves must be proven to have a low impact on human health to meet the USDA’s stringent guidelines. Although high doses of these pesticides may pose a health risk, the remaining residues that make their way into our food have been repeatedly shown to have virtually no effect on health. The World Health Organization notes that none of the pesticides currently authorized in international food trade are damaging to humans on a genetic level, and only become dangerous to workers who are directly exposed to them in much higher quantities in the field.
“From a consumer standpoint, our levels of exposures are very, very low,” Winter said. But that doesn’t mean farmers can just dump the stuff willy-nilly. “I’m not here to say pesticides are fine and we shouldn’t worry about it. We need to regulate them.”