Pesticides and Other Chemicals in Our Food:

The United States uses one fifth of the world’s pesticides. It is estimated that U.S. pesticide use has averaged between 1.2 and 1.5 billion pounds a year for nearly twenty years. Ironically, many of the pesticides banned for agricultural use in the U.S. are still manufactured here. They are then sold to developing nations and used on their crops, which are then imported back to the U.S. for use. Worldwide, use of specific pesticides totals over 6 billion pounds per year. For the most recent updates on food news related to pesticides and herbicides in the food supply, visit www.foodnews.org.

About one-half of our produce and one-third of our grains have been reported by the FDA to contain pesticide residues. Meat, dairy products, and poultry may have traces of pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, tranquilizers, steroids, or other drugs. Fish and shellfish may contain mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and chemicals such as dioxins.

Cookies, cakes, pies, cereals, breads, pastries, candy bars, chewing gum, sodas, diet drinks, processed deli meats, sausages, and dairy products are all examples of processed food. Basically anything that does not come directly from the ground as a whole food can be considered a processed food and may contain one or more of the following: additives, preservatives, artificial flavorings, artificial colorings, artificial sweeteners, and of course herbicide and pesticide residues. Each of these categories may contain hundreds of separate items, with each item having many possible side effects.

Whenever possible, choose certified organic food products. Certified organic foods and products are not only free of pesticides, herbicides, and chemical or synthetic fertilizers, but are intentionally grown in soils that contain more nutrients due to natural composting, crop rotation, and other age-old techniques. Certified organic food products also do not contain antibiotics, growth hormones, or genes from other plant, animal, or insect species (Genetically Modified Organisms). Various testing over the years has shown increased nutrient content in organically-raised vegetables to be from 50 to 200 percent greater than non-organic sources.

"The legislation to ban pesticides within city limits did not spring full-blown from the mind of a bored, do-gooder activist. It followed thousands of reports of individual citizens being sickened because they happened to be downwind when a neighbor's yard was chemically treated. People have suffered seizures, lost motor function, had their pets die, and seen their children permanently injured in front of their eyes. Yet, industry--with lobbyists, lawyers, and cant--continues to state through its trade organizations that legislation controlling pesticide usage 'does not appear to be based on scientific evidence, but appears to be a 'cave-in' to public perception and fear.' If we are not going to cave in to what we see and feel and know, then why even have local legislation? The implication of such remarks is that the public's fears are not legitimate fears, that the public cannot be trusted to act in its own interest. It is as if we have come full, dark circle to a time when 'We the People' are being asked to subordinate our conscience, our common sense, and our collective will to a higher authority...in this case, a higher authority that would attempt to convince us that spending hundreds of millions of dollars to place chlorinated hydrocarbons on our lawns...chemicals that are toxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic, chemicals that seep into the water table, chemicals that have caused irreversible endocrinal damage in wildlife and humans...is good for us."

Paul Hawken, The Ecology of Commerce, page 115.