ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

The Ecology of our Harvest: Q & A

What are the environmental issues related to agriculture?

There are two interrelated issues. First, how does the food we eat affect our health? Many human-made chemicals, including pesticides, leave residue on foods, persist in water supplies, and remain in the food chain for years.

Second, how do the processes by which we grow, transport, and package food affect the health of our planet? Depending on the how it is conducted, agriculture can be an environmentally sustainable activity that actively enriches surrounding ecosystems, or it can be highly destructive of land, species, and clean water.

Are these really serious problems?

According to government reports:

• Pesticides poison over 300,000 farm workers and their families each year.
• Dioxin is now so widespread in fish that even remote populations in pristine areas are contaminated by it.
• Chemicals in our environment may be contributing to the rise of a number of types of childhood cancers and other childhood diseases.
• Most streams in the Midwest contain high concentrations of pesticides for several weeks or months following their application to crops, with levels of some pesticides at times exceeding federal health standards for drinking water.

Aren't we already protected by current laws and regulation?

Yes and no. The Environmental Protection Agency has set "tolerance levels" for many pesticides--but many are still relatively untested. And even those that have been tested have, up until very recently, only had safety limits set for exposures to healthy adult males. Children are often both more sensitive and more exposed to such chemicals through normal childhood behaviors. Though some recent laws, especially the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act, were designed to increase protection of children, the EPA has come under pressure from pesticide companies and agribusinesses to hold off on strict enforcement.

More problematic still is what we do not yet know. Are these chemicals responsible for increases in various childhood cancers and diseases? What really are our exposure levels? How much dioxin are we carrying around in our bodies, how precisely did it get there, and what are the long-term health consequences? Some of these chemicals may be "endocrine disrupters," severely affecting human hormonal systems. But at present, we just don't know--and there are no government programs in place to find the answers to all these questions.

What is organic food? Is it just some trendy products or is it really part of the solution?

"Certified organic" food is grown and processed using no synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. The certification process occurs through various organic growers' associations at present, although efforts are underway to standardize the certification nationwide. Organic products are now the fastest growing category of food in the U.S. If, through support of organic products, farmers see that organic methods indeed pay off, pesticide and energy use by the agricultural sector could drop significantly--leading to significant improvements in human and ecosystem health.

How do the food choices we make affect the environment?

By purchasing certified organically grown food, we can support the continued expansion of earth-friendly agriculture and those who make a living from it.

We can make a difference in other ways as well through the food choices we make. We can reduce our "ecological footprint"--the amount of resources we consume and the amount of pollution we produce-by reducing the amount of meat and dairy products we eat and increasing the amount of grains and vegetables we eat. This is because livestock eat vast quantities of grain. Indeed, a significant majority of all grain grown in the U.S. is used for animal feed. And animal wastes cause much water pollution in rural areas. Eating less meat and dairy products and more grains and vegetables is also, for most Americans, consistent with a healthy diet.