I’ve been following these issues for a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of evidence that organic foods have lower levels of pesticide residues than conventional foods, so I was surprised to read a two-part analysis on Forbes.com, by Steve Savage, a conventional-side plant scientist I know and respect, showing that the number of residues, and the amount of pesticide in those residues, were virtually the same for organic and conventional foods.
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Savage’s data were spectacularly wrong. He reported that conventional foods had an average of 3.1 different pesticides, and organic had 2.6. The real numbers, which I downloaded the entire residue database to get, are 3.2 for conventional (okay, that’s close), and 0.8 for organic (definitely not close).
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The key question, of course, is whether that matters, and this is the crux of the disagreement over residue levels.
There’s no question that pesticides can be toxic to people, and farmworker exposure is a serious issue. But levels in food are very low, and the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency (along with many toxicologists I’ve spoken with over the years) say you shouldn’t be concerned about them.
Read full, original post: The truth about organic produce and pesticides
