> Environmental and Health Concerns > Herbicides and Pesticides

Chemicals in our Foods
by author Mary Bennet, MH

Imagine a steamy plate of vegetarian broccoli lasagne, rich tangy tomato sauce, whole-wheat noodles and lots of mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Can’t you just smell the goodness?

Guess again. Unless all the ingredients come from organically-raised and organically-processed foods, that delicious meal could be full of more than 100 agricultural chemicals (excluding fertilizers), and more than 50 registered food processing chemicals. Tomatoes alone may be exposed to any combination of 41 different pesticides. Under the right circumstances, permethrin, a particularly toxic pesticide, can concentrate in canned tomato paste by 230 times, thus exceeding the Canadian Health Protection Branch’s (HPB’s) acceptable residue level of 0.5 parts per million. Are you still hungry?

Let’s begin with growing the ingredients for that lasagne. In the 1930s, government studies revealed a shocking lack of minerals in North America farmland soils. The studies agreed that basic human health could not be maintained through eating foods grown on depleted soils, so nutritional dietary supplementation was advised.

In the ensuing decades, farmers used chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides in attempts to improve soil and crop quality and quantity. Despite decades of chemical solutions, those commercial farm soils are in no better condition today. By contrast, organic farmers rely heavily on organic manure and organic compost to rejuvenate and reinvest the soil with minerals, essential bacteria and micronutrients.

Canadian farmers, on average, use fewer chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides) than American, South American or Asian farmers. But consider this. Forty years ago, Canadian farmers lost about one third of their crops to pests. Today, Canadian farmers use three times the amount of agricultural chemicals as were used then, and still about one third of their crops are lost to pests.

Poison Spreads

Of the pesticides that are used, less than 0.1 percent of these actually stays where it is applied. The remainder, in excess of 99.9 percent, often travels to contaminate air, ground and surface water, other soil and food and animals.

Back to that lasagne. Over 300 registered chemicals are allowed to be used in production and handling of foods. However, HPB has established residue limits for about only 100, because about 200 of those 300 chemicals are considered harmless. As a result, the amounts used of about 200 chemicals are regulated by the producer and processor. Your lasagne, whether bought in a restaurant or in a grocery store, does not need to list any of these "incidental" chemicals as ingredients.

The Health Protection Branch permits the following chemicals in food processing, and yet does not consider them additives: salt, sugar, starch (any type, including the potentially hazardous modified versions), vitamin/mineral preparations, amino acids, spices, seasonings, flavorings, agricultural chemicals, veterinary drugs (hormones, antibiotics), irradiation and food packaging materials (BHT, BHA).

Agricultural chemicals, veterinary drugs, irradiation and food packaging chemicals are not considered additives because of HPB’s assumption that none of these agents or their possible byproducts will be present in foods if they are all used "properly, with discretion." Discreet and proper use of agricultural chemicals means that the vegetables in your lasagne may have been exposed to quite a few chemicals.

The onions may contain any amount of 16 agricultural chemicals, while the garlic is luckier, with possible exposure to a mere five or so. That’s before processing. Was the lasagne made with fresh, frozen, dehydrated or canned vegetables? Each process has a variety of approved chemicals available to preserve taste, color, texture and shelf life.

Safety Too Expensive

Source: alive #210, April 2000