Food Safety

A recent report by Agriculture Canada states that:

Random testing of 298 632 samples in 1990-91 found that approximately 99.8% of Canadian meats, fruits and vegetables tested met with Health and Welfare Canada's strict food safety standards.

Chemicals occur normally in nature. For example, most plants produce natural pesticides which protect them from microbes, insects, animals, and other plants. Scientists have calculated that we ingest 10 000 times more of these natural pesticides, by weight, than human-made compounds.

The State of the Industry

Modern science now makes it possible for biologists and government inspectors to find minute amounts of potentially harmful residues in food-in parts per billion or even smaller concentrations. As testing methods become more sensitive, it becomes impossible to reduce all residues to absolute zero. But minute traces of most substances are not considered dangerous to humans. In general wisdom, "the dose makes the poison" poisonous.

To provide some level of comparison of the levels of chemicals in our food, one part per billion equals one second in 32 years. The levels of chemicals in our environment are usually reported in ppm or ppb (parts per million or parts per billion), so this mean that if we are checking for chemical X in our carrots, and the concentration was measured at 6 ppb, it would take 6 billion grams of carrots to get 1 gram of chemical X. The quantity is very small, but we have to remember that some chemicals not only accumulate in our body, but they often need only be present in these incredibly small levels to harm us.

Pesticides have been produced commercially for more than forty years. They include insecticides, fungicides, rodenticides, and herbicides. Initially created to increase crop yields and control diseases, pesticides have been proven to be poisonous in the ecosystem.

Several common pesticides are known or suspected to cause cancer, spontaneous abortions (reproductive toxicity), genetic mutations, birth defects, and other chronic health hazards. Most of these pesticides have been banned for use in North America, but they are still used in many places around the world.

Organic Farming

The American Society for Agronomy defines "Sustainable" Agriculture as "one that over the long term: Enhances environmental quality and the resource base on which agriculture depends; Provides basic human food and fiber requirements; Is economically viable; and, Enhances the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole."

Organic farming is one type of sustainable agriculture, but sustainable agriculture also includes many methods of farming that use low rates of farm chemicals, not allowed by organic standards.

Organic farming is a system of farm design and management practices, ostensibly based on sound ecological principles, that seeks to create ecosystems with a diverse mix of mutually dependent life forms. This diversity acts as a natural barrier to soil degradation, disease and pests. Prohibited products and practices must not be used on certified organic farms for at least three years prior to production of the certified organic products. Soil on the organic farm is given the utmost importance. Many organic farmers believe that a healthy soil produces healthy plants which in turn produce healthy livestock and people. The Americans have minimum standards for the certification of organic food. We in Canada are currently negotiating to establish similar standards.

Cereals (wheat, oats, barley), and forages (hays and haylages fed to ruminants like cattle) have low pest pressures and nutrient requirements, so they are easily grown organically. Soybeans (for both livestock and human consumption) are more difficult to grow organically because of difficulties with weeds. Corn requires too many nutrients and suffers from the competition of weeds too much to be easily grown organically, though it is done fairly often. During a transition from conventional production of these crops to organic production, yields can be as low as 50% of pre-organic yields, but after a 3 to 5 year transition period, yields usually bounce back to 80 to 100%.

The ease of organic production of fruits and vegetables varies considerably from crop to crop. Yields of all fruits and vegetables tends to be lower when produced organically though the benefits in taste and piece of mind on the part of the consumer means that the higher production costs are met by higher retail prices.

Livestock products which are grown organically have not been exposed to antibiotics, growth hormones and insecticides. Vaccinating and deworming are also not carried out on animals intended for the organic market.

Organic produce is almost always more expensive because of more intensive management, higher labour and marketing costs and lower yields. Farm gate prices are usually 10-30% more, while chain stores may sell organic produce for as much as 50-100% more than they pay for it wholesale.

Natural and Artificial Pesticide

Fruit producers in Ontario would not be able to supply the amount of produce we require if they were to stop using pesticides. Since the 1940s research on minimizing chemical use has been taking place. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a program followed by many growers in Ontario. It is based on the premise that eliminating all pests is unnecessary. Instead, monitoring the populations of pests and spraying at the most appropriate time manages to produce quality crops with a reduction of as much as 75% of pesticide applications. (There are various ways of monitoring pests-one method involves tricking the insects by hanging sticky yellow and red spheres which look like fruit in the trees-another involves placing the female sex hormone (called a pheromone) on sticky traps. These techniques allow researchers to obtain a sampling of the population, allowing them to determine the population of each insect in a given area.

Pesticides must undergo rigorous testing before they are licensed for use in Canada. Part of the testing involves determining the amount of residue remaining in the product at the time of consumption. If the toxicity level of a pesticide is acceptable, an Acceptable Daily Intake is established. This reading refers to the amount of residue a person can ingest daily without causing harm. If this reading falls within the acceptable limits the pesticide is licensed for domestic, commercial and restricted use. In Ontario, farmers can only buy and use pesticides once they have passed an examination. The pesticide approval process in Canada is one of the toughest in the world. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, however, now lists pesticide pollution as the most urgent environmental problem in the country.

Plants develop their own poisons to fight off disease. The natural pesticides found in potatoes, solanine and chaconine, are potent carcinogens, but 400 years of potato consumption does not appear to have increased the cancer rate in humans. Scientifically, there is no difference between naturally occurring chemicals and those produced synthetically. However, it has been suggested that since these chemicals are within a natural "context" there may be some mitigating influence which keep the chemicals from impacting on us.

Scientifically Speaking

Scientists have been working on the "total diet" approach towards estimating the lifetime accumulation of pesticides. Food is purchased from grocery stores, brought into the lab and prepared in the manner the "average" Canadian would use and analyzed.

Dr. Frank H. Duffy of the Harvard Medical School states that even tiny quantities of pesticides can "alter brain activity for more than a year and cause irritability, insomnia, loss of libido and reduced powers of recall and concentration" ("Earthcare: Ecological Agriculture in Saskatchewan," National Geographic, Feb., 1980.).

The Canadian Environmental Advisory Council points out that "If the 405 currently registered pesticides were subjected to proper environmental studies, most would likely have to be withdrawn. In addition, it is unlikely that any new chemical pesticide would be registered."

When pesticides were first used in the US about 20 million kilograms were used and about 7% of crops were lost to insect damage. In 1978 the US was using 270 million kilograms of insecticides annually and was losing 13% of crops to insects. These statistics suggest the pesticides rather than insect are the real problem. Perhaps if we stopped using pesticides, then the insects could be dealt with in a more suitable manner. As it stands, pesticides are everywhere.

"Temik" is one of the most toxic pesticides on the market. Its toxicity has been described by saying, "if you pick up Temik with wet hands on the way downstairs, you wouldn't make it to the bottom of the stairs." Low levels of Temik in the water supply damage the human immune system-something of concern in Prince Edward Island where 25% of wells have a measurable quantity of this chemical.

A study of surface water in Saskatchewan has discovered the presence of 3 forms of PCBs, 7 herbicides including an Agent Orange combination, and fifteen other pesticides.

There is some evidence that plants grown organically may even produce more natural toxins than would have been applied, as nature tries to provide the plant with protection from insects and disease. Although these natural toxic chemicals can pose a risk when consumed in excess, they can be suppressed by the use of a synthetic chemical. But it is important to remember that the dose makes the poison; we would die if we consumed too much water or too much table salt.

The overuse of fertilizers, pesticides and drugs has taken place in order to provide the consumer in Canada with cheap food. What the consumer pays for his/her food will dictate how food is produced. Canadians have the second cheapest food in the world. A transition to organic production requires much more manual labour. More Canadians than the present 3% of the population will have to be dedicated to producing food in this manner. We will also not be able to expect to have such cheap food, though many of us would live healthier lives and probably enjoy the taste of what we eat.