Birds on the Brain

Are lower pesticide residues a good reason to buy organic? Probably not.
By Christie Wilcox |, scientificamerican.com

A lot of organ­ic sup­port­ers are up in arms about the recent Stan­ford study that found no nutri­tion­al ben­e­fit to organ­ic foods. Stan­ford missed the point, they say—it’s not about what organ­ic foods have in them, it’s what they don’t. Aft…

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Organic pesticides pose the same health risks as non-organic ones. No matter what anyone tells you, organic pesticides don’t just disappear. Rotenone is notorious for its lack of degradation, and copper sticks around for a long, long time. Studies have shown that copper sulfate, pyrethrins, and rotenone all can be detected on plants after harvest—for copper sulfate and rotenone, those levels exceeded safe limits. One study found such significant rotenone residues in olives and olive oil to warrant “serious doubts…about the safety and healthiness of oils extracted from drupes treated with rotenone.” Just like with certain synthetic pesticides, organic pesticide exposure has health implications—a study in Texas found that rotenone exposure correlated to a significantly higher risk of Parkinson’s disease. The increased risk due to Rotenone was five times higher than the risk posed by the synthetic alternative, chlorpyrifos. Similarly, the FDA has known for a while that chronic exposure to copper sulfate can lead to anemia and liver disease.