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Originally Posted by undercoverbrother
Interesting, I have long thought "ogranic food" was a food of the rich. What are the thoughts on the "pesticide/chemicals" from non-organic foods. We have a neightbour that is organic nuts and this is her main argument. Oh, and that all non-organic is run by big business and therefore is bad.......
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For the most part pesticide risks are overstated by organic food supporters - that doesn't mean there's no risk, but there are some pretty big safety factors built into the maximum allowable pesticide residues on food. How much risk there really is would depend on the specific pesticide used, how much below the limits the residue on the food is, and how well it is washed.
You get more toxic chemicals including carcinogens just from what is naturally produced in the plants - one study I read suggested on average about 99% of the total toxic potential of food could be from the naturally present chemicals. Also, organic foods can have pesticides, they just have to be non-synthetic (which does not automatically mean less toxic). So saying that organic foods are safer because of the absence of pesticides is probably at the very least an over-simplification.