More Than Pesticides Threaten Our Sustainable Food Supply
According to the Scientific American, if we're worried about antibiotics in our beef, our vegetables may be no better. New studies show vegetables like lettuce and potatoes - even organic ones - may carry antibiotic residues. What should we expect, I suppose. We've pumped antibiotics into the animals we raise as food for more than 50 years - in fact, 70% of antibiotic use in the US is in the agriculture sector not at your doctor's office or hospital. The long term effect? One that you may not know about: these drugs are transferred to our vegetables through contaminated soil and compost.
Yes, compost. Even organic compost.
And health officials fear that eating vegetables laced with drugs meant to treat infections will increase antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria in our food, bodies, and environment. There have been direct studies linking antibiotic use in agriculture to an explosive rise in asthma and allergies in children over the last 20 years. Too, tainted manure impacts more than just the soil. Once applied to the land - either directly from that animal or transported via compost - these antibiotics seep into water supplies, wells, streams, rivers, oceans. It also contaminates mice, rabbits, foxes, and other wildlife that traverse farmland.
More than agriculture, we do it too!
And it's more than just the agricultural sector pumping pharmaceuticals into our food supply. 80% of streams tested by the United States Geological Survey are contaminated with OUR drugs like painkillers, hormones, and blood pressure medicines in addition to antibiotics. While we know these compounds exist in our water and then soil watered with that water: what we don't know is how all of these compounds react with each other or their cumulative effects individually or in combination - regardless of the dose size - in either the environment or in our bodies once we've ingested them.
According to a recent EPA study, 7 different pharmaceuticals and 2 personal care products were found in fish from 5 separate rivers in: Chicago, Dallas, Orlando, Phoenix, and West Chester. What did they find? Cholesterol lowering drugs, antihistamines, sedatives, blood pressure medication, epilepsy and bipolar drugs, Prozac, Zoloft, and two odor-enhancing ingredients in soap and hygiene products. This same study also found these drugs in the drinking water of Chicago and a dozen other cities.
We thought we were safe . . .
We think we're safe with organic food, but the USDA organic label does not require testing for antibiotic or hormone or pharmaceutical contamination of land, nor does it regulate raw/cooked compost or compost sources. Studies have confirmed that some USDA fruits and vegetables are also tainted with these drugs further muddying the "organic products are the best-of-the-best, most healthiest option we have" argument. Which is a shame because we turned to organics in the first place because of chemical contamination concerns. Little did we know that Monsanto Chemical Company continues to test and use recombinant bovine growth hormone in tilapia fish farming (bet you wondered where we are using rBGH now!), or that birth control pills and hormones used during menopause are causing the most damage to our wild fish populations.
What happens now that we know about pharmaceutical contamination?
According to Mother Earth News, There are more than 1,000 "active" ingredients currently being used in insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and other "cides" - all are products designed to kill some type of living thing. There are also about 4,000 additional chemicals in those products that manufacturers claim are "inert" ingredients. Federal law requires that companies reveal the active ingredients on the products' labels. But the law allows companies to conceal any ingredients they say are "inert," even though at least 374 inerts are known to be hazardous and another 1,863 were of unknown toxicity in 2006, when 22 advocacy groups and 15 state attorneys general petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require disclosure of hazardous inerts. In fall 2009, the EPA announced it would pursue a change in disclosure rules for hazardous inert ingredients in pesticides. I hope they follow through - not only with information but with policy changes!
What does the future look like? What to do?
There is no debate: we simply must find a balance between consumer protection, animal health, welfare, and trade requirements concerning residues of pharmacologically active (and inactive) substances used in medicinal products used in food producing animals.
We could learn a lot from the European Commission, Vermont, and Germany. We could catch up on our reading. We need to really pay attention and GET TO KNOW OUR FARMERS and PRODUCERS. We need our local food supply to let us know more about their practices (good marketing and competitive differential there - hint, hint!). We need to learn as much as we can so that we can lobby for our defense. We can support organizations like the EWG who continues to help us stay informed. And more importantly, we can continue to have this discussion. The more we talk, the more solutions we just might find . . .
