Page 55 - RealDirtENG2020

Common question: residues and the “dirty dozen”
Every year, an environmental group in the United States releases a “dirty dozen” list of fruits and vegetables it says should be avoided due to high pesticide residue levels. It’s a clever tactic to garner attention, but scientists at the University of California, Davis, and elsewhere, have found the report to be misrepresentative of facts, and deceptive127.
Scienti c analysis has found that if residues are present, they’re almost always at extremely low levels that don’t cause harm. For example, a child would have to eat 7,240 servings of carrots per day before pesticide residues would be a concern128! It’s all about dosage—consider that you likely won’t feel the impact of half a Tylenol tablet on your headache, but taking a whole bottle could be lethal.
There’s no such thing as “zero” when you’re looking for residues or controlling risks, but Health Canada sets the acceptable amount of pesticide allowed to remain on food—called Maximum Residue Limits (MRL)—far below the amount that could pose a health concern, just to be sure people and food are safe.
Today’s lab equipment and testing methods are so precise, that they can nd amounts so tiny that they won’t cause harm, but are still detectable. That’s the case with recent ndings of glyphosate
residues in breakfast cereals like Cheerios. The amounts found are so minute that a person could eat 2.3 kilograms of Cheerios every day, and still be completely safe from any glyphosate-related harm129.
For perspective: we can now detect residues in parts per billion— and one part per billion is like one foot on a trip to the moon, or one second in 32 years!
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency surveys fruits and vegetables in Canada for pesticide residues each year. The test results consistently con rm that the overwhelming majority of foods on the market meets Canadian standards for food safety.
The bottom line:
You don’t have to worry about Canadian fruits and vegetables: they’re safe, although we still encourage you to wash your produce before eating.
Better science for more
sustainable food
Growing food means using science. Every aspect of farming,
from plant and animal genetics, soil management, and pest and disease control, to animal nutrition and housing, and even weather forecasting, has bene tted from science. For Canadians, science has brought us more abundant, nutritious, and affordable food that’s being grown more sustainably than ever before.
QUICK
FACT
It can take more than 10 years to develop, test, and bring a pesticide product to market.
Farm Boy Productions
Chapter 7: Healthy and safe food 55