Pesticides for Dinner

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http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1122-20.htm

 

 

 

 

 

Published on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 by

CommonDreams.org

 

 

 

 

Pesticides for Dinner

 

 

 

 

 

by Kirsten

Schwind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As people

across the United States dedicate an entire day to the contemplation

and enjoyment of food, pesticides are uninvited

guests. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control indicates that

we all carry an average of 13 pesticides in our bodies, some

of which can cause cancer, disrupt hormones, decrease fertility, cause

birth defects, and weaken our immune systems. The

concentrations of these pesticides in our bodies often exceed levels

considered safe for human health.

 

Simply

eating dinner exposes us to pesticides we never asked for. For example,

potatoes, a perennial holiday staple, are among the

worst offenders containing residues of up to 29 pesticides. Women,

children, and Mexican-Americans carry the highest pesticide body

burden - the latter due in large part to the fact that over 70% of

farmworkers are of Mexican descent. Unwilling exposure to

dangerous pesticides is a concern that links consumers with the

farmworkers who grow our food.

 

The

traditional Native American foods highlighted at Thanksgiving in the

U.S. are still brought to the table by descendents of the

people who first domesticated these plants. Increasing proportions of

U.S. farmworkers are indigenous peoples from Mexico who face

serious language, cultural, and economic discrimination when migrating

to the United States. Farmworkers are essential to U.S.

agriculture, yet the inadequacy of immigration law subjects migrants to

legal insecurity, exploitative labor conditions, and even

cases of modern-day slavery. Farmworkers in conventional agriculture

are also regularly exposed to dangerous levels of pesticides in

the fields and packing houses, and suffer myriad health problems

associated with pesticide exposure ranging from seizures to

elevated rates of leukemia, stomach cancer, and cervical and uterine

cancer.

 

In a

heartbreaking recent case, three women who worked with their husbands

in an Immokalee, Florida tomato field belonging to the

Ag-Mart Corporation gave birth to babies with severe birth defects. One

child, Carlitos, was born without arms and legs. Two days

later a baby girl, Violeta, was born missing her nose, ear, and visible

genitalia, and died several days after birth. Violeta's

older siblings were born healthy before their parents came to work in

Ag-Mart's fields. At the entrance to the field where all six

parents worked is posted a list of 38 separate products involving some

30 pesticides used on the crops during the year. While

covering this situation, The Palm Beach Post discovered that regulators

in Florida and North Carolina have charged Ag-Mart

Corporation with over 300 violations of pesticide laws. Florida's major

grocery store chain Publix preemptively pulled Ag-Mart's

Sweet Santa brand tomatoes from its shelves in anticipation of consumer

concern.

 

The

good news is that buying organic food reduces pesticide exposure for

both farmworkers and consumers. Even as corporations such

as Kraft and Dean Food - who are buying up many organic brands - lobby

to dilute U.S. Department of Agriculture organic standards

with legislation that allows additional synthetic chemicals in

processing, buying organic remains the most fundamental action that

consumers can take to reduce pesticide exposure. A recent biomonitoring

study from the U.S. government's National Institute of

Environmental Health Sciences found that feeding exclusively organic

food to schoolchildren for just five days greatly decreased the

quantity of organophosphorus pesticides found in their urine. The study

concluded that the children were most likely exposed to

these pesticides through their diet, strongly indicating that buying

organic food can almost immediately decrease the pesticide body

burden of your family. When consumers turn to organics during the

holidays, we are helping parents who work in the fields to have

healthier families as well.

 

Kirsten Schwind is staff editor

and writer at Pesticide

Action Network North America. She has worked in solidarity

with farmers and farmworkers in Guatemala, Mexico, and California with

organizations such as Food

First and Witness

for Peace.