Organic food costs a lot more than regular food

Seattle Times
Astrid Pujari, MD
Column: March 18, 2007 

Organic food costs a lot more than regular food. Is it really better? Are there certain foods that matter more than others?

The question about eating organic food reminds me of a story a colleague told me once about malaria. Long before scientists proved that mosquitoes carried malaria people had observed that using a mosquito net prevented the illness. In fact, in the first century B.C the Romans had a law that people were not allowed to live in mosquito infested areas for that reason. It was common sense.

But then research got involved. In the late 1800’s, scientists hotly debated the issue back and forth (for about 30 years, actually). In the meantime, people living with mosquitoes – and malaria - had a choice. Either they could wait until medicine argued out all the details (whenever that was), or they could just continue sleeping under mosquito nets.

The fact is that our common sense is often way ahead of science. And in the case of organic food, I think that is definitely true. It makes perfect sense to most people that eating things which poison innumerable living things, and ecosystems, would not be good for your health. That fact is not always obvious to science.

In addition, as humans we are part of a web of life. When we damage the ecosystems around us, it inevitably comes back to haunt us. Being conscious about the environment is not about saving the Earth. It’s about saving ourselves. The Earth will still be here, whether we poison ourselves and the creatures around us out of existence or not. So while some people prefer bumper stickers like “Save the Planet,” it might be more accurate to write, “Save the Humans.”

That being said, let’s go through some specifics about what we know – and don’t know – about organic food.

1. What does “certified organic” mean?
   1. For crops: no conventional pesticides, genetically modified organisms, artificial fertilizer or sewage sludge, no ionizing radiation or food additives are used.
   2. For animals: reared on organic food, without antibiotics, growth hormone. In the future, cloned animals will likely also be prohibited.
2. Do pesticides cause cancer?
   • At this point, we don’t have proof, and I am not sure we ever will because doing the best quality studies would take a tremendous amount of money and time. However, there are plenty of issues that raise my concern. Here are just a few:
     
     • In animals many pesticides cause cancer. Recently, I reviewed 22 of the top pesticides used by agriculture in 2000 and 2001 on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website. Of those, 54% were considered likely, probable or possible carcinogens (meaning that they are linked to cancer development), and 22% had not been studied enough to know for sure one way or the other.
     • Population studies suggest links between pesticide exposure and different cancers. Of 99 human studies summarized in a comprehensive scientific report by the Lymphoma Society, 75 found a connection between pesticides and lymphoma.
     • Atrazine is the most commonly used herbicide in the US, with about 60 million pounds used per year (mostly on corn). It has been banned by the European Union because of concerns that extremely low levels cause sexual abnormalities in frogs, and an increased rate of prostate cancer in atrazine production workers.
3. What foods have the highest level of pesticides?
   • Animal products probably have the highest levels overall. In a Romanian study, meat was 6 times higher in total pesticides than vegetables. Milk products were three times higher.
   • Remember that animal products often have hormones and antibiotics in addition to pesticides, which is another whole basket of worms. If you want to avoid all this, I recommend getting certified organic meat, eggs, and dairy products. Note that “free range” and “natural” meat is not the same as organic; you need to look for the actual word “organic” on the label.
   • In terms of vegetables and fruits, the nine worst are: apples, celery, cherries, nectarines, peaches, pears, spinach, strawberries, and sweet bell peppers. In my opinion, though, it’s probably safest to eat everything organic if you can.
4. Is organic food really lower in pesticides, or is it just a marketing gimmick?
   
   • Consumer Reports did an analysis in 1998, and found that organic food had consistently minimal or nonexistent pesticide residue.
5. Is organic food more nutritious?
   • In one peer reviewed summary of 41 studies, there was more vitamin C and minerals in organic food. Based on this analysis, five servings of organic vegetables (lettuce, spinach, carrots, potatoes and cabbage) met the recommended daily allowance for vitamin C, while their conventional counterparts did not.
6. Does washing or peeling eliminate pesticides?
   • Somewhat, but it’s not as good as buying organic because some pesticides leech into the food.
7. How does eating organic impact the environment?
   • This is a huge topic, and controversial (of course). However, briefly, pesticide runoff can kill wildlife, either directly or by impairing fertility. When it rains in Seattle, for instance, urban pollutants dump into streams, and salmon (already endangered) die.
   • Practices common in organic farming, like crop rotation and composting, increase the quality of the soil, which preserves topsoil and leads to plants with higher nutritional value. In addition, factory farms (in which thousands of cows, for instance, are raised together on a lot) are have replaced industrial factories as the top problem when it comes to polluting our waterways, and spills can kill large numbers of fish. Although organic practices don’t prohibit this, the incentive is still there for the most part. Organic farmers can’t use all the drugs that industrial farms can, so to keep cows healthy, they generally need to have lower numbers and be more humane.