Worried Parents Turning to Organic Food

[Guest guest]

Published on Thursday,

November 3, 2005 by the Associated Press

Worried Parents

Turning to Organic Food

by Libby Quaid

 

 

Erin O'Neal has two daughters and a fridge stocked with organic

cheese, milk, fruits and vegetables in her Annapolis, Md., home. She

is among the increasing number of parents who buy organic to keep

their children's diets free of food grown with pesticides, hormones,

antibiotics or genetic engineering.

 

" The pesticide issue just scares me - it wigs me out to think

about the amount of chemicals that might be going into my kid, "

said O'Neal, 36.

 

Since last year, sales of organic baby food have jumped nearly 18

percent, double the overall growth of organic food sales, according to

the marketing information company ACNielsen.

 

As demand has risen, organic food for children has popped up at more

than just natural food stores.

 

For example, Earth's Best baby food, a mainstay in Whole Foods and

Wild Oats markets, just reached a national distribution deal with Toys

R Us and Babies R Us. Gerber is selling organic baby food under its

Tender Harvest label. Stonyfield Farm's YoBaby yogurt can be found in

supermarkets everywhere.

 

The concern about children is that they are more vulnerable to toxins

in their diets, said Alan Greene, a pediatrician in northern

California. As children grow rapidly, their brains and organs are

forming and they eat more for their size than do grown-ups, Greene

said.

 

" Pound for pound, they get higher concentrations of pesticides

than adults do, " said Greene, who promotes organic food in his

books and on his Web site, http://www.drgreene.com

 

New government-funded research adds to the concern. A study of

children whose diets were changed from regular to organic found their

pesticide levels plunged almost immediately. The amount of pesticide

detected in the children remained imperceptible until their diets were

switched back to conventional food.

 

" We didn't expect that to drop in such dramatic fashion, "

said Emory University's Chensheng Lu, who led the Environmental

Protection Agency-funded research. Lu's findings will be published in

February in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

 

Scientists are still trying to figure out how pesticides affect

children, Lu said, but he notes that it took years to prove the health

hazards of lead.

 

Conventional food is considered safe by the government.

 

Still, the uncertainty is leading parents, especially new or expecting

mothers, to switch to organic food. Many are even making their own

baby food from organic ingredients.

 

" Maybe that has the reputation of being difficult, but it doesn't

have to be, and once you get into the habit of doing something

regularly, it gets to be easier, " said Jody Villecco, a

nutritionist for Whole Foods.

 

In a traveling lecture series for Whole Foods and Mothering magazine,

Villecco demonstrates by shaving a peeled banana with a knife to make

mush - " There, we just made baby food, " she said. She

recommends people make baby food in big batches and freeze it in ice

cube trays.

 

Eating organic is definitely not cheap. But Green and Lu said parents

have options if they can't afford the food or don't want to search for

it or make it: Buy fruits and vegetables known to have lower pesticide

residues.

 

The Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based advocacy group,

has produced a guide to the pesticide levels in fruits and vegetables

commonly sold in grocery stores, basing the findings on data from the

Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration.

 

The guide says the lowest pesticide levels are found in asparagus,

avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, kiwi, mangos,

onions, papaya, pineapples and sweet peas.

 

The highest pesticide levels, meanwhile, are found in apples, bell

peppers, celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches,

pears, potatoes, red raspberries, spinach and

strawberries.

 

The rating system is unnecessary, according to industry

representatives who say conventional food is safe and

affordable.

 

" There are some people in the organic food industry and the

environmental industry who have unfortunately scared parents into

thinking you have to turn to organic sources for baby food, based on

claims that have no basis in science or fact, " said Jay Vroom,

spokesman for CropLife America, an industry group. " The products

my industry produces are safe " for everyone.

 

Beyond baby food, dairy and produce, snacks are also a rapidly growing

segment of organic food, according to the Organic Trade Association,

an industry group.

 

Snacks are a priority for Susan Guegan, 44, a mother of four boys in

Boulder, Colorado. Guegan made their food from scratch when they were

babies. Now she buys organic versions of the cookies and hot dogs they

ask for.

 

" They love Oreos, " she said. " They'll say, `Can we get

this?' I'm like, `Can you read me the ingredients?' They'll laugh and

try to say some of them. I'll say, `You can put that back.' "

 

On the Net:

 

Organic Trade Association: http://www.ota.com

 

Environmental Working Group guide:

http://www.foodnews.org/pdf/walletguide.pdf

 

CropLife America: