Worried Parents Turning to Organic Food
by Libby Quaid, CommonDreams.org
Erin
O'Neal has two daughters and a fridge stocked with organic cheese,
milk, fruits and vegetables in her Annapolis, Md., home. She is among
the increasing number of parents who buy organic to keep their
children's diets free of food grown with pesticides, hormones,
antibiotics or genetic engineering.
“The
pesticide issue just scares me — it wigs me out to think about the
amount of chemicals that might be going into my kid,” said O'Neal, 36.
Since
last year, sales of organic baby food have jumped nearly 18 percent,
double the overall growth of organic food sales, according to the
marketing information company ACNielsen.
As demand has risen, organic food for children has popped up at more than just natural food stores.
For
example, Earth's Best baby food, a mainstay in Whole Foods and Wild
Oats markets, just reached a national distribution deal with Toys R Us
and Babies R Us. Gerber is selling organic baby food under its Tender
Harvest label. Stonyfield Farm's YoBaby yogurt can be found in
supermarkets everywhere.
The
concern about children is that they are more vulnerable to toxins in
their diets, said Alan Greene, a pediatrician in northern California.
As children grow rapidly, their brains and organs are forming and they
eat more for their size than do grown-ups, Greene said.
“Pound
for pound, they get higher concentrations of pesticides than adults
do,” said Greene, who promotes organic food in his books and on his Web
site, http://www.drgreene.com
New
government-funded research adds to the concern. A study of children
whose diets were changed from regular to organic found their pesticide
levels plunged almost immediately. The amount of pesticide detected in
the children remained imperceptible until their diets were switched
back to conventional food.
“We
didn't expect that to drop in such dramatic fashion,” said Emory
University's Chensheng Lu, who led the Environmental Protection
Agency-funded research. Lu's findings will be published in February in
the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.
Scientists
are still trying to figure out how pesticides affect children, Lu said,
but he notes that it took years to prove the health hazards of lead.
Conventional food is considered safe by the government.
Still,
the uncertainty is leading parents, especially new or expecting
mothers, to switch to organic food. Many are even making their own baby
food from organic ingredients.
“Maybe
that has the reputation of being difficult, but it doesn't have to be,
and once you get into the habit of doing something regularly, it gets
to be easier,” said Jody Villecco, a nutritionist for Whole Foods.
In a
traveling lecture series for Whole Foods and Mothering magazine,
Villecco demonstrates by shaving a peeled banana with a knife to make
mush — “There, we just made baby food,” she said. She recommends people
make baby food in big batches and freeze it in ice cube trays.
Eating
organic is definitely not cheap. But Green and Lu said parents have
options if they can't afford the food or don't want to search for it or
make it: Buy fruits and vegetables known to have lower pesticide
residues.
The
Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based advocacy group, has
produced a guide to the pesticide levels in fruits and vegetables
commonly sold in grocery stores, basing the findings on data from the
Agriculture Department and Food and Drug Administration.
The
guide says the lowest pesticide levels are found in asparagus,
avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, kiwi, mangos,
onions, papaya, pineapples and sweet peas.
The
highest pesticide levels, meanwhile, are found in apples, bell peppers,
celery, cherries, imported grapes, nectarines, peaches, pears,
potatoes, red raspberries, spinach and strawberries.
The rating system is unnecessary, according to industry representatives who say conventional food is safe and affordable.
“There
are some people in the organic food industry and the environmental
industry who have unfortunately scared parents into thinking you have
to turn to organic sources for baby food, based on claims that have no basis in science or fact,” said Jay Vroom, spokesman for CropLife America, an industry group. “The products my industry produces are safe” for everyone.
[This guy is either in denial or he's simply getting paid – The science
is overwhelming but the effect on industry would be also if the
government came out confirming the science. It's always about the
money.]
Beyond
baby food, dairy and produce, snacks are also a rapidly growing segment
of organic food, according to the Organic Trade Association, an
industry group.
Snacks
are a priority for Susan Guegan, 44, a mother of four boys in Boulder,
Colorado. Guegan made their food from scratch when they were babies.
Now she buys organic versions of the cookies and hot dogs they ask for.
“They
love Oreos,” she said. “They'll say, `Can we get this?' I'm like, `Can
you read me the ingredients?' They'll laugh and try to say some of
them. I'll say, `You can put that back.'”
On the Net:
Organic Trade Association: http://www.ota.com
Environmental Working Group guide: http://www.foodnews.org/pdf/walletguide.pdf
CropLife America: http://www.croplifeamerica.org
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