Pesticide Free Sign
Pesticides have been intentionally applied abundantly to most food we consume in the United States since the late 1940s when man-made chemical pesticides were introduced. Unfortunately, deadly pesticides are invisible to consumers. This makes distinguishing dangerous from safe produce and fruit so expensive and time consuming that it is rarely done except by government agencies and public interest groups.
The public was widely alerted to the danger of toxic food by Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring. As of 2013 a large and constantly growing number of people take measures to avoid food with any pesticides.
However, the agricultural chemical manufacturers do not just sit back and accept pesticide free food as a valid consumer choice. They quietly and constantly spend millions upon millions of dollars to undermine and deface the government authorized term “organic.” And they have succeeded.
Three things Wrong with “Organic” Labeling
1. Today many people who believed they were buying pesticide-free and man-made chemical-free food because it was labeled “organic,” are shocked to learn that “the label ‘Organic’ does not mean “Pesticide Free.”
Any food may be legally sold as “organic” (under the California Organic Foods Act of 1990) even if it contains as many as 15 prohibited pesticides, each of which can contaminate the food at up to 5 percent of the amount allowed by the Federal EPA (FIFRA) pesticide tolerance level for non-organic foods. (California Health and Safety Code Section 110825.)
2. It might be even more surprising to learn how some of our food contains illegal pesticides – highly deadly pesticides banned decades ago.
3. Other products are falsely sold as “certified organic” but grown with non-organic chemical fertilizers for years.
The Salinas/Gonzales based “California Liquid Fertilizer” company sold “organic” fertilizer containing ammonium sulfate, but the farms and products using that chemical were NOT De-Certified by California Dept of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the US Dept of Agriculture or CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers). CDFA knew the fertilizer was tainted in 2004 but did not order the product off the market until 2007.
This article is not about finding foods with merely fewer pesticides and chemicals than normal foods, or about improving farming practices, it is about finding food to eat today — which is truly pesticide and chemical free.
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