By Shauna Rempel
Pesticides are necessary to produce safe, affordable food, says a new information campaign aimed at telling the public the real deal on responsible pesticide use. The Food for Thought campaign was launched last month by CropLife Canada, a lobby group representing pesticide manufacturers, developers and distributors.
“There’s a lot of mixed information that I think (people) are buffeted with almost on a daily basis,” says Lorne Hepworth, president of CropLife Canada. “They should know that they can buy with confidence.”
Hepworth says people have bought into the hype that pesticides can cause cancer or other health problems.
An April 2004 report by the Ontario College of Family Physicians linked pesticide exposure to a host of health problems, including cancerous tumours, skin diseases and reproductive problems.
But Edith Lachapelle, a spokesperson for Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency, says the report was too narrow and didn’t give an accurate picture of pesticide exposure for most people.
“(The college) only looked at a selected few epidemiology studies,” she said.
Lachapelle says Health Canada’s role is to ensure that pesticides do not pose adverse health effects on people.
Before a pesticide is approved for use in Canada, it must pass about 160 tests through the regulatory agency. Sometimes the process takes as long as 10 years.
Fresh produce is also tested before it gets to stores to make sure it doesn’t have more than an acceptable level of pesticide residue.
“Ninety-seven to 99 per cent of commodities tested are within the guidelines,” says Alain Charette of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which conducts random and routine checks.
The maximum residue limit for a pesticide is determined by doing toxicity tests in animals and then dividing that level by 10 to get a safe amount for humans. The amount is divided again by 10 to account for people with health problems, children and the elderly.
But Katie Albright of Sierra Club of Canada says people could still be ingesting too much of the chemicals used to treat pests.
“In the end they’re making a judgement call, saying ‘that’s fine,’ but it’s not a science-based decision,” she says.
Doris Fiszer is not convinced the residue limits are safe. The Ottawa resident has several adult-onset allergies and blames pesticides for her allergies.
“I’m against using pesticide, because already our food is not of good quality and so adding pesticides to it, it just makes it more toxic,” she says.
Fiszer chooses pesticide-free food whenever possible.
According to CropLife, Canadians spend an average of 10 per cent of their household budget on food, compared to 64 per cent in some developing countries. Hepworth says that could change dramatically if it weren’t for pesticides to keep costs down and yields high.
Teena Myscouhg is one shopper who says she doesn’t mind spending more.
“Some people won’t pay proper prices for what it costs to make real food,” Myscouhg said during a recent shopping trip to an organic farmers’ market.
Fruits and vegetables that have been treated with pesticides just don’t taste the same, says Myscouhg. She prefers going to organic stores, “Where sprays haven’t been used (and) food tastes like food.”
Martin Brunet, an Ottawa horticulturalist who has worked with plants for 25 years, says there are alternatives that accomplish the same things that pesticides do, but without the potentially harmful chemicals.
“It’s obviously easier to pour chemicals on it, but it’s not necessary,” Brunet says. People don’t consider options that may be as affordable and effective as pesticides, he says. Options like naturally discouraging weeds by mulching or crowding them out through over-seeding.
But sometimes pesticides are necessary, as Alvin Filsinger found out last season. The Ayton-area farmer sprayed his apples for scab, a condition caused by fungus. He lost his organic certification because he used a spray not allowed under the certification rules. On the plus side, he still had a crop to sell.
Hepworth says most farmers practice integrated pest management, a combination of methods that includes pesticides along with biological and other techniques. He says some consumers will never be convinced that responsible pesticide use is safe. But he maintains organically produced food is no better or safer than that grown using conventional pesticides.