Organic food is still a niche market, representing just over two percent of all food sold. According to Consumer Reports, it costs consumers on average about 50 percent more than conventionally grown foods. But organic food is more visible today than ever before, with most large supermarket chains in Canada now offering dedicated organic sections.
A reason for the surge in popularity in organic foods? Most Canadians say they buy organic because it's healthier, according to an ACNielsen survey. But are they right?
Eighty-five percent of organic food sold in Canada is grown in the United States. Wherever grown, no food - whether organic or conventional - can be sold in Canada unless it meets Canadian standards for legal pesticides and for residue limits. Says Health Canada's Paul Duchesne, "Our main interest is to ensure that both types of food are safe to consume."
Organic food is brought to market according to the National Standard of Canada for Organic Agriculture, principles "that endorse production and management practices that contribute to the quality and sustainability of the environment and ensure the ethical treatment of livestock." One of the main differences is supposed to be that organic produce is not sprayed with synthetic pesticides.
Yet, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) says, "the term organic is not synonymous with pesticide-free." Several large U.S. studies have found traces of synthetic pesticides on as much as 25 percent of organic foods. (There have been no similar major studies done on organic foods in Canada, but the CFIA found that ten percent of all Canadian-grown produce - conventional and organic - had pesticide residues.)
Some of those residues found on organic food may be due to "uncontrolled contamination," says Andy Hammermeister of the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada at Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro. That could be the result of the wind blowing synthetic pesticides onto organic crops, prior use of synthetic pesticides on the land, old or used spraying equipment, and so on. But it's not always by accident that pesticides end up on organic foods. "Most people don't realize that organic farmers are allowed to use a wide array of natural, non-synthetic chemicals as pest killers," says Alex Avery, director of research and education at the Centre for Global Food Issues, a United States-based Hudson Institute group that researches agricultural and environmental concerns. Many conventional farmers, meanwhile, are actually using less pesticide. In Ontario, for example, pesticide application has dropped by 50 to 60 percent overall since 1983, according to the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture.
And just because pesticides are natural doesn't mean they aren't toxic. The natural pesticide rotenone, for instance, found in a number of plants, causes Parkinson's symptoms when injected into rats. Pyrethrum, derived from dried chrysanthemum heads, has been classified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as having "suggestive evidence of carcinogenicity." For humans, Avery says, "the natural poisons pose the same theoretical, but remote, dangers as the synthetic."
But consumers need not be alarmed by pesticide residues, natural or synthetic, left behind on both organically and conventionally grown produce. For one thing, most comes off en route from the farm to your shopping cart – in the process of trimming, shipping and washing. According to Christine Bruhn, director of the Center for Consumer Research at the University of California, Davis, washing alone removes from 70 to 99 percent of pesticide residues. After washing, any traces left are minute. In fact, we're exposed, on average, to only about 0.9 milligrams of synthetic pesticides daily.
For more, click this link:
http://www.besthealthmag.ca/eat-well/healthy-eating/does-organic-mean-healthier
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