News You Can Use 1/15/01
Organic foods offer peace of mind–at a price
By Mary Brophy Marcus
Compare organic and conventional apples
A young mother, Margo Mukkulainen, stands in her neighborhood grocery store, infant slung on one hip, pondering a choice of potatoes. Organic or not organic? Both look fresh, plump, and earthy, but the organic spuds cost nearly twice as much. "I believe there's a health difference, but how much?" asks Mukkulainen, 32, who lives in Fogelsville, Pa. "The whole organic thing is really confusing."
Some of the confusion was dispelled last month, when Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman released the first set of national organic standards, which will replace a patchwork of state and private certifications covering foods produced without synthetic chemicals. By August 2002, all produce, dairy, meat, and prepared foods stamped "organic" not only must be produced without synthetic pesticides, fungicides, and herbicides but must meet other requirements as well. Genetic engineering, the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer, and irradiating food to preserve it will be banned for organic produce, as will hormones and antibiotics in organic meat and dairy products.
Shunning these technologies makes organic farming more labor intensive, pushing up the price of organic produce. And that raises the second question, which clearer labeling won't settle: Are organic groceries worth the extra cost?
If you're looking for immediate health benefits, save your money. Organic foods are no more wholesome or nutritious, says Glickman. The organic label "is not a seal of safety. It's a marketing tool." What the higher grocery tab may buy you, however, is peace of mind. Although hard evidence is scarce, some scientists think that pesticide residues in conventional food could, over many years, raise the risk of cancer and other ills, especially in children. The hormones given to animals to beef up meat and milk production also worry some scientists and advocates, who suspect these substances may move up the food chain to humans and cause developmental problems. All-organic shopping may seem too pricey a precaution. But you can target your spending toward those fruits and vegetables that can carry the largest doses of chemicals.
The meaning of organic. Organic food sales still make up less than $8 billion of the $460 billion grocery market, but sales have been increasing by about 20 percent a year over the past decade. About one third of Americans buy some organic products, according to a large survey by the Hartman Group in Bellevue, Wash. Yet many buyers don't know exactly what "organic" means, the Hartman Group has found. "Is it not pasteurized?" asks one woman browsing the dairy aisle at a Fresh Fields in Wayne, Pa. (Actually, milk, organic or not, must generally be pasteurized to kill bad bacteria.)
Down on the farm, the differences are unmistakable. Many conventional dairy farms have thousands of cattle, typically kept in close quarters and often given hormones to boost their milk output and antibiotics to keep them healthy. An organic dairy farm is likely to be smaller; the animals graze outdoors and feed on organically grown hay, and get close attention when they are sick. While most apple growers spray the trees with synthetic chemical pesticides, organic growers choose bug- and fungus-resistant varieties and thwart pests with glue-coated traps and other natural countermeasures. Organic vegetable growers fertilize their crops with composted manure rather than synthetic chemicals and control weeds without the use of herbicide.
These practices are part of the allure of the organic movement, because they may be kinder to family farms, the environment, and animals than other farming. "People want to picture their food coming from small family farms where the cows are outside eating grass," says Travis Forgues, an organic dairy farmer in Alburg, Vt. The potential health benefits, however, are what get most consumers to open their wallets. "I honestly believe that naturally grown foods are healthier and will help one live longer," says Internet consultant Mark Modzelewski of Woodstock, N.Y.
Yet organic foods are no richer than other varieties in vitamins, antioxidants, and other nutrients–nor are they any less likely to make you sick with food poisoning. The sewage sludge dumped on some conventional crops may sound distasteful, but it's treated to kill bacteria before use. Nor do most scientists see health advantages in two other features of "organic," as defined by the Agriculture Department: the ban on genetic engineering and food irradiation. Much of the nation's corn and soybeans and a growing number of other crops include foreign genes that allow the crops to be grown with less chemical pesticide, for example. But although some tests have raised the possibility that the altered foods might trigger allergic reactions, no cases have been substantiated so far. And there's little support for claims that irradiation creates toxins in food, although a few advocacy groups say more research is needed.
For consumers worried about diet and health, the big difference is that organic foods are virtually free of the synthetic chemicals found in regular produce. The fruits and vegetables in a typical produce aisle may contain anywhere from one to a half-dozen pesticide residues. The types and amounts depend on the history of that particular fruit or vegetable–what it was sprayed with and how many times, whether pesticide drifted onto it from nearby farms, whether it was shipped in a truck tainted with residues.
Tracing risk. In large doses, many of these chemicals can cause cancer, nervous system damage, and other ills. The risks, if any, of the traces found in your salad and fruit bowls are not known. Weighing the threat is especially tough when it comes to children, whose developing bodies may be more vulnerable and who eat large amounts of fruits and vegetables. "I wouldn't say the food out there is unsafe," says Adam Goldberg, a policy analyst for Consumers Union, in Washington, D.C., "[but] some pesticide exposures create risk, in particular in children."
The EPA is responding to such concerns. In 1999, for example, the agency banned the use of the pesticide methyl parathion on most fruits, including grapes, and many vegetables. Animal studies showed that moderate doses of the compound could cause cancer, and a computer model suggested that even the much smaller doses remaining on produce might pose some risk of cancer and neurological damage in children. The agency also mandated cutbacks in the use of another pesticide, azinphos-methyl, frequently applied to orchards. But many other pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides remain in wide use.
Keep any risk in perspective, Goldberg urges. "Children should eat a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables"–whether organic or not. But he and others urge that you wash and peel everything you can. And because different fruits and vegetables bear different kinds of residues, vary what you serve–don't put strawberries on the table day after day.
Conventionally produced meat and milk have raised other concerns. A few experts have speculated that the growth hormones used in beef cattle and dairy cows, chickens, goats, and other animals might be behind a worrisome trend: the increasingly early onset of puberty, especially in girls, who according to one recent study often show signs of breast development or pubic hair by age 8. But Ruth Kava, director of nutrition for the American Council on Science and Health, says it's an unlikely theory, and that lack of exercise and obesity are much likelier causes.
Clear threat. The heavy doses of antibiotics given to farm animals are a clearer threat to public health–not because they reduce the safety of meat or milk but because they spawn antibiotic-resistant bacteria that may spread from animals to people. Last April, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine linked antibiotic-resistant microbes in livestock to a case of salmonella in a young farm boy, whose infection resisted 13 powerful drugs.
Consumers who want to eat organic food but have limited grocery budgets can decide which organic produce to buy based on "dirty dozen" lists. Published by watchdog groups, these lists pinpoint the produce likely to contain the most residual chemicals. Though their lists differed somewhat, Consumers Union (www.consumersunion.org/food/food.htm; click on "Worst First") and the Environmental Working Group (www.foodnews.org) both fingered apples, peaches, and spinach among the foods containing the highest levels of pesticide residues.
Or if the health and environmental claims of organic farming don't impress you, let your taste be your guide. For some, the image of a happy chicken foraging in a grassy farmyard simply makes the eggs tastier. "The food tastes better," says Modzelewski.
The taste question, at least, is one you can settle yourself. Yet organics may not always win. In an informal blind taste test at U.S. News recently, winter tomatoes were equally tasteless, whether conventional or organic. But the regular carrots we sampled beat the organic kind hands down. Our tasters preferred organic orange juice, yet opted for the conventional blueberry yogurt. But just about everyone agreed that the organic milk tasted great. Maybe it was the happier cows.
An apple a day either way
Conventional or organic, an apple contains roughly 80 calories, a dollop of fruit sugar and fiber, and antioxidants that may stave off cancer and other illnesses. But the organic variety can cost twice as much, and its life in the orchard is very different.
ORGANIC MCINTOSH
- Coat branches with soybean oil to kill insect eggs on the bark.
- Trap apple maggots on fake apple lookalikes coated with glue.
- Release moth sex pheromones, which interfere with mating.
- Rely on insect predators to eat mites.
CONVENTIONAL MCINTOSH
- Coat branches with petroleum or soybean oil to kill insect eggs.
- Spray three or more synthetic pesticides to kill apple maggots, codling moths, spider mites, and other pests.
- Release moth sex pheromones to further reduce pest numbers.
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