People who eat organic foods are about eight times more likely to be attacked by the deadly E.coli bacteria than are people who eat mainstream foods. Organic consumers are at increased risk from natural toxins produced by fungi, some of which cause cancer. Organic foods also carry far more dangerous bacteria (salmonella, campylobacter and Listeria) that kill thousands of people every year.
But you’d never know of these dangers from reading a new food-safety leaflet that the EPA will start distributing in U.S. supermarkets. Instead, the EPA’s leaflets talk about undocumented “dangers” from pesticide residues in our food. The leaflets warn mothers that, “some pesticides have been shown to cause health problems such as birth defects, nerve damage, cancer and other toxic effects in laboratory animals. In addition, infants and children may be more vulnerable to pesticides because their bodies are not fully mature.”
To combat these “dangers”, the EPA urges homemakers to wash, peel, boil and skin their food to get rid of pesticide residues-or to buy organic foods. You’d never know from the EPA leaflet that national research councils of both the U.S. and Canada recently said pesticide residues pose no significant danger to consumers or their kids. You’d never know of the dangers posed by organic foods, which are produced with-out the aid of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. You’d also never know of the dangers of “natural” products, which are less processed than mainstream products-no preservatives, no pasteurization, etc.
The most deadly of the health threats in our food today is a virulent new strain of E.coli bacteria-0157:H7. It can attack the kidneys and liver, causing permanent internal damage or death. Animal manure is the primary reservoir of this bacteria-and organic farmers rely heavily on manure to fertilize their crops. The Centers for Disease Control confirmed 2,471 cases of this strain in 1996-and estimates at least 250 deaths. The CDC says the confirmed cases were likely a small fraction of all cases.
Organic and natural foods made up about only one percent of the U.S. food supply, but they were implicated in at least eight percent of the confirmed 0157:H7 cases. Consumer Reports magazine recently found that free-range chickens are more likely to be infected with dangerous bacteria. Free-range chickens pick up almost anything, including parasites and bacteria from one another’s wastes.
The Food and Drug Administration says organic crops have higher rates of infestation by natural toxins-including aflatoxin, one of the most violent cancer agents known to man. Organic foods suffer more damage from insects and rodents, which lets toxin-causing fungi get into the organic crops. Raw and unpasteurized milk and “natural” juices may be “fresher”, but are potentially contaminated with dangerous bacteria and diseases like tuberculosis. More than 1,500 companies sell these products in the U.S.
Source: The NATA Voice
Reprint permission given by AgAir Update, P.O. Box 850, Perry, GA 31069 - an international agricultural aviation publication.
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