89.
Pesticides
Poisoning The Planet
Dr. Walter Crinnion, The Huffington Post
In my Earth Day blog I mentioned that 1.2 billion pounds of pesticides were sprayed per year in the United States with an annual cost of $11 billion, while the total world pesticide use exceeded 5.0 billion pounds in 2000 and 2001 (for a combined total of $64.5 billion). That should take care of all those nasty bugs! But, less than 0.01 percent of all those billions of pounds that are sprayed actually make it to the intended pest! Oops. Kind of surprising that such an inefficient system is still in use today, isn't it?
It probably wouldn't be so bad if the pesticides were only harmful to a few bugs, but they are not. All pesticides kill bugs by poisoning their nervous systems (think "brain" and "nerves"). Today the bulk of pesticides used are either organophosphates or pyrethroids. Organophosphates came out of nerve gas research in Germany between the first and second world wars. This is also the same class of compounds that was released into a Tokyo subway a number of years ago by a cult group. So, if you are concerned at all about your brain, your children's brains and the brains of your elected officials and everyone driving cars on the road around you, then maybe you want to help to start reducing the 99.99 percent of the 1.2 billion pounds of neurotoxic pesticides that are floating around because you decided to save a buck by buying a commercially raised apple.
It probably wouldn't be so bad if the pesticides were only harmful to a few bugs, but they are not. All pesticides kill bugs by poisoning their nervous systems (think "brain" and "nerves"). Today the bulk of pesticides used are either organophosphates or pyrethroids. Organophosphates came out of nerve gas research in Germany between the first and second world wars. This is also the same class of compounds that was released into a Tokyo subway a number of years ago by a cult group. So, if you are concerned at all about your brain, your children's brains and the brains of your elected officials and everyone driving cars on the road around you, then maybe you want to help to start reducing the 99.99 percent of the 1.2 billion pounds of neurotoxic pesticides that are floating around because you decided to save a buck by buying a commercially raised apple.
“I asked the feedlot manager why they didn't just spray the liquefied manure on neighboring farms. The farmers don't want it, he explained. The nitrogen and phosphorus levels are so high that spraying the crops would kill them. He didn't say that feedlot wastes also contain heavy metals and hormone residues, persistent chemicals that end up in waterways downstream, where scientists have found fish and amphibians exhibiting abnormal sex characteristics.”
~Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
While no pesticides or herbicides are used to grow crops that are certified organic, the idea that these crops are free of insecticide residue is actually not true. Those that are raised in open fields are open to the air and get contamination from pesticides and heavy metals that are blowing around. And these pesticides have been shown to fly around the globe, travelling thousands of miles. However, it is true that organically raised foods are significantly less contaminated with these chemicals than the same foods grown in non-organic methods (including integrated pest management systems). The levels of pesticide residue on foods in the United States is monitored through the Pesticide Data Program of the US Department of Agriculture. A review that utilized their data, along with data from Consumers Union and the Marketplace Surveillance Program of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation reported that organically raised foods had one-third the amount of chemical residues that were found in conventionally raised foods. When compared to those grown with integrated pest management techniques, the organics had half the amount of residues. In addition, organic foods were far less likely (by a factor of 10) to have two or more residues on them than conventional foods were. While only 2.6 percent of all organic foods had multiple residues detected, 26 percent of the conventional did. Data from the Pesticide Data Program revealed that the conventional produce that had the highest percentages of positive (insecticide residue) findings were: celery (96 percent), pears (95 percent), apples (94 percent), peaches (93 percent), strawberries (91 percent), oranges (85 percent), spinach (84 percent), potatoes (81 percent), grapes (78 percent) and cucumbers (74 percent) (45). That study found that an average of 82 percent of all conventional fruits were positive for insecticide residues while only 23 percent of the organics were. When it came to vegetables, 65 percent of the conventional tested positive, compared to only 23 percent for the organics.
And Prabhupada would add, "They think Vedic culture is primitive, but actually it's most scientific."
Paramananda and Nirmal walk toward an eggplant patch where two bamboo crosses stand like scarecrows. Says Nirmal, "You've heard of Laksmi, the goddess of fortune? She represents everything that comes from the soil -- crops, jewels, raw materials -- all wealth. Anyway, when rats were destroying the crops, I got some zinc phosphate from Bombay. It worked well for a while, but the rats were so intelligent they stopped eating it. Then the Vedas gave me a hint. The sages describe Laksmi as riding on an owl, a nocturnal predator. To give the owls the hint, I put up these bamboo perches, and watched them land at night. One by one, the rats came out of their holes and ended up in the owls' stomachs. Krishna's natural pest control."
~ Suresvara dasa (Simple Living High Thinking)
The sufferings of human society are due to a polluted aim of life, namely lording it over the material resources. The more human society engages in the exploitation of undeveloped material resources for sense gratification, the more it will be entrapped by the illusory, material energy of the Lord, and thus the distress of the world will be intensified instead of diminished. The human necessities of life are fully supplied by the Lord in the shape of food grains, milk, fruit, wood, stone, sugar, silk, jewels, cotton, salt, water, vegetables, etc., in sufficient quantity to feed and care for the human race of the world as well as the living beings on each and every planet within the universe. The supply source is complete, and only a little energy by the human being is required to get his necessities into the proper channel. There is no need of machines and tools or huge steel plants for artificially creating comforts of life. Life is never made comfortable by artificial needs, but by plain living and high thinking.
~ Srila Prabhupada (Srimad Bhagavatam 2.2.37)
The fruits and vegetables with the highest and lowest percentages of residues in the USDA study is very similar to the listing of the most and least toxic foods that is available on the web through Environmental Working Group. The current list given by them lists the top 12 most toxic fruits and vegetables as (In order of toxicity):
- Peach
- Apple
- Bell Pepper
- Celery
- Nectarine
- Strawberries
- Cherries
- Kale
- Lettuce
- Grapes (Imported)
- Carrot
- Pear
And the least toxic ones as:
- Onion
- Avocado
- Sweet Corn
- Pineapple
- Mango
- Asparagus
- Sweet Peas
- Kiwi
- Cabbage
- Eggplant
- Papaya
- Watermelon
- Broccoli
- Tomato
- Sweet Potato
- Peach
- Apple
- Bell Pepper
- Celery
- Nectarine
- Strawberries
- Cherries
- Kale
- Lettuce
- Grapes (Imported)
- Carrot
- Pear
And the least toxic ones as:
- Onion
- Avocado
- Sweet Corn
- Pineapple
- Mango
- Asparagus
- Sweet Peas
- Kiwi
- Cabbage
- Eggplant
- Papaya
- Watermelon
- Broccoli
- Tomato
- Sweet Potato
You are given a field, a piece of land. You can grow twice, thrice in a year very nice foodstuff, sometimes pulses, sometimes paddy, sometimes the mustard seed. Any land... In India, we have seen that a cultivator produces three, four kind of food grains in a year. That is the system... That is the system that in India every man is producing his food grains independently. Now it is stopped. Formerly, all these men, they used to produce their food grain. So they used to work for three months in a year, and they could stock the whole year's eatable food grains. Life was very simple. After all, you require to eat. So this Vedic civilization was that keep some land and keep some cows. Then your whole economic question is solved.
~ Srila Prabhupada
Not only have repeated studies shown that organic foods have lower levels of insecticides, but there is also now clear evidence showing lower pesticide levels in the actual consumers of the organic foods (i.e. You!). I also talked about these fascinating studies in Seattle (with Dr. Fenske at the University of Washington) in my Earth Day blog. It started with a simple study that looked at the organophosphate pesticide presence in the urine of preschoolers in the Seattle area. The researchers found that all but one child had pesticide residue in their urine (which meant it was in their bloodstream, as well). When they questioned the parents of this one child, they learned that they only fed organic food to their children.
So, the researchers began to plan another study to see if eating organic foods really did lower one's pesticides levels. Well, their follow-up study with preschoolers proved that it did. They enrolled families into the study by standing outside of the Puget Consumers Co-op (for families buying organic foods) and outside Larry's Market (for families buying conventional foods). When they broke the code on the samples they found that the children whose parents supplied them with mostly conventional foods had six to nine times higher levels of pesticides in their urine than the children who ate mostly organic foods. How nice to be able to take some simple steps that keep neurotoxic compounds from entering the bodies of our children and ourselves.
So, the researchers began to plan another study to see if eating organic foods really did lower one's pesticides levels. Well, their follow-up study with preschoolers proved that it did. They enrolled families into the study by standing outside of the Puget Consumers Co-op (for families buying organic foods) and outside Larry's Market (for families buying conventional foods). When they broke the code on the samples they found that the children whose parents supplied them with mostly conventional foods had six to nine times higher levels of pesticides in their urine than the children who ate mostly organic foods. How nice to be able to take some simple steps that keep neurotoxic compounds from entering the bodies of our children and ourselves.
Nature already has an arrangement to feed us. By the order of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, there is an arrangement for eatables for every living entity within the 8,400,000 forms of life. Eko bahunam yo vidadhati kaman. Every living entity has to eat something, and in fact the necessities for his life have already been provided by the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The Lord has provided food for both the elephant and the ant. All living beings are living at the cost of the Supreme Lord, and therefore one who is intelligent should not work very hard for material comforts. Rather, one should save his energy for advancing in Krishna consciousness. All created things in the sky, in the air, on land and in the sea belong to the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and every living being is provided with food. Therefore one should not be very much anxious about economic development and unnecessarily waste time and energy with the risk of falling down in the cycle of birth and death.
~ Srila Prabhupada (Srimad Bhagavatam 7.14.14)