Organic vs. conventional produce: Does it matter?
Social media and a variety of holistic websites are full of posts touting how organic produce is better because it is “cleaner” with the word cleaner implying that these produce are better because they have less or zero pesticides on them. In their reports they commonly cite the Environmental Working Group (EWG) a non profit organization that every year releases two lists: The Clean Fifteen and the Dirty Dozen. These lists name the produce on them with the least (“Clean Fifteen”) and most (“Dirty Dozen) pesticides, advising the reader to purchase organic because of this. This sounds like a great heuristic, after all, shouldn’t we all be cautious about the pesticides on our produce?
Who is the EWG?
According to their own website, the EWG is a non profit organization “dedicated to helping you live your best life.” Sounds good, right? In reality, the EWG is heavily criticized by the scientific community because of their messy scientific methods as well as the alarmist messaging they spread to the public year after year about produce as well as skincare products. The EWG receives most of their funding through contributions, and among their donors are many wealthy family foundations (Rockefeller and Hewlett) and organic food corporations (Organic Valley, Applegate, Stonyfield Farms). Brands are able to become EWG verified for a hefty price where once verified, brands can advertise this on their product as part of their marketing strategy for increased sales.
The EWG has been releasing their “Clean Fifteen” and “Dirty Dozen” list since 2004. There are several inherent problems with the list. The list doesn’t take dose or exposure into consideration, which are the two most important pieces of information when determining whether something is toxic, especially for human consumption. Everything becomes toxic at a certain dose, even water. Secondly, the list only reports on conventionally grown produce and doesn’t report pesticide numbers for organically grown produce. Because guess what? Organic farming also uses pesticides. The difference is that synthetic pesticides used by conventionally grown produce farmers are tightly regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and have strict tolerance levels for safe exposures. The pesticides used in organic farming are not regulated and therefore there is no toxicity testing, hence, no data on how these pesticides are in comparison to their conventionally grown counterparts.
Is conventionally grown food safe?
Indeed there is pesticide residue on lots of the foods we eat. The potential health risks posed by these residues in foods is assessed by developing estimates of dietary exposure to pesticides and comparing exposure estimates to toxicological indicators of health concern. One of which is called the Chronic Reference Dose (RfD) and another is the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI). An accurate estimate of dietary pesticide exposure requires data on specific levels of pesticide residues detected as well as estimations of consumption amounts of all foods for which residues are detected.
The Total Diet Study (TDS) is conducted every year by The FDA and has been since 1961. This is where FDA inspectors purchase market baskets of 280 food items from retail locations in various regions of the country and are then analyzed for potential food contaminants such as pesticide residues as well as for metals and selected nutrients. In this paper from 2015, the FDA analyzed a total of 2240 food items in its 2004 and 2005 TDS for residues of more than 300 pesticides, metabolites, and breakdown products. There were 77 pesticide residues detected and exposure levels to all pesticides were below RfD values. These results confirm that while pesticide residues are frequently detected in a variety of foods, chronic dietary exposure to pesticides continues to be at extremely safe levels and far lower than any considered to be of health concern.
Another study by the same author looked at the produce on the Dirty Dozen list in 2010 and estimated the risk of exposure to these foods based on the pesticide levels found on them. Again these estimates were compared with RfD values to determine the toxicological significance of such exposures. Here is a quote form the conclusion section of the paper: “findings conclusively demonstrate that consumer exposures to the ten most frequently detected pesticides on EWG's “Dirty Dozen” commodity list are at negligible levels and that the EWG methodology is insufficient to allow any meaningful rankings among commodities.”
Bottom Line
The “Dirty Dozen” list is not an accurate representation of the risk to our health from eating conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. It is simply a list of produce that contains more numbers of pesticides compared to the other produce on the list. All produce on the “dirty dozen” list have proven to be safe for human consumption annually by the FDA. Not to mention the cost of organic produce vs. conventionally grown. Cost per pound, you are always more likely to get more for your buck for conventionally grown produce.
What is much more of a concern is simply not eating enough fruits and vegetables. We’re still not meeting the daily requirements and it’s one of the best measures you can take to protect your overall health. This is so important because perceptions and beliefs relevant to fruit and vegetable consumption regarding organic vs. conventionally grown, significantly influences whether people purchase and consume them. One study was able to demonstrate that by simply stating that certain fruits and vegetables have higher pesticides levels, shoppers were more likely to choose the option of “less likely” to purchase fruits and vegetables when asked on a questionnaire. And this doesn’t even take into account the perceptions and beliefs regarding canned or frozen produce compared to fresh and how that influences purchasing behavior as well.
The bottom line is that you want your focus to simply be on consuming more fruits and vegetables. Not only buying what is labeled as organic because of media messages reporting that it is safer or superior. Our food is incredibly safe and there’s no need to fret about pesticide consumption being dangerous from conventionally grown food. You will get all the nutrients you need from non-organic produce and you will end up saving money. Non-organic produce is simply more accessible and more affordable and provides all of the benefits you need to support your mental health.
References
Winter, C.K. Chronic dietary exposure to pesticide residues in the United States. FoodContamination 2, 11 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40550-015-0018-y
Winter, C. K., & Katz, J. M. (2011). Dietary exposure to pesticide residues from commodities alleged to contain the highest contamination levels. Journal of toxicology, 2011, 589674. https://doi.org/10.1155/2011/589674
Huang, Yancui MS; Edirisinghe, Indika PhD; Burton-Freeman, Britt M. PhD, MS Low-Income Shoppers and Fruit and Vegetables, Nutrition Today: 9/10 2016 - Volume 51 - Issue 5 - p 242-250 doi: 10.1097/NT.0000000000000176
