May 2008 Archives

Wild rice, peaches, avocados, brocolli, lettuce, ... the list goes on!  California is the American produce center because of our wonderful year round weather, fertile valleys and access to markets.  And Americans can keep this asset robust by buying and cooking American foods!

Want a cookbook that is all about California grown foods?  It's free on the CaliforniaGrown.org website!

California is the leading producer of fresh peaches, plums and nectarines in the United States producing 60% of the peaches, 95% of the plums and 90% of the nectarines.

Most of these fruits are grown within a 50-mile radius of Reedley, a quiet California Central Valley town near Fresno. Other growing areas exist near Bakersfield, Modesto and Sacramento. Approximately 1,500 farmers, small and large, grow these three fruits commercially, hand picking them in the orchards and hauling them to packing sheds.

Guy Fieri Promotes California Grown Products

 

Guy Fieri is known for creating food that is as fun, fearless, and fundamental as his larger-than-life personality. Check out a video from his recent visit to Sacramento where he talked with local California growers…

Remember the little fruit stands that used to be the norm along suburban and rural roads?  I grew us shopping at our neighbors' farm stands...and even sold homegrown dill and apples in our own miniature version as a rural version of a kids' lemonaide stand.  Can you imagine the sparse customers for dill? :-)  But we actually had a few regular customers who needed dill for their pickle canning...and it gave  me my first taste of agricultural marketing!

California is a big state...an agricultural state and a state with millions of potential "local shoppers".  Now we just need to understand WHY that is important.   My husband and I were discussing the news I read this morning about a man from Croatia flying to New York to buy clothes because they are such a bargain right now!!!!!  What?!?  Croatia -- that war ravaged country that is trying to recover -- they are flying to New York City -- one of the most expensive US cities in which to live?  What's changing this drastically?

One word.  We've lost our local manufacturing // and agriculture.

That's why shopping at local farm stands, local farmers markets and insisting that your grocery store carry locally grown produce rather than imports is important. 

Barbara Steinberg recently wrote about how she's trying hard to buy local...and how it's not always easy!

I really took it to heart when learning about the whole "farm to table" philosophy, which promotes buying produce that's been grown within 100 miles of home.  Let me tell you something...it's tough.  But I try. And failing that, I tell myself, "It must at least have been grown in California." When that doesn't work...at the very least, it should be grown in the U.S.  How hard could that be? Well, sometimes really, really hard. Why? Because labeling is so misleading and even with produce you to read the fine print.  Haas California avocados are a great example. You see them everywhere.  But many times, those buttery fruits are grown in Chile. CaliforniaInsier.typepad.com

Buy   There are great farm, wine, and harvest trails throughout the state.

Barbara includes a wonderful list of FARM TRAILS in California on her blog.  I hope that if you live in California, or are coming to visit this summer, you'll support our local California farmers ... and treat yourself to the succulent, fresh, tasty products of our all-American soil!  Barbara's list of FARM TRAILS is worth exploring!

The Organic Center has researched a new method to quickly and cost-effectively track changes in soil quality brought about by the transition to organic farming.

Alan Franzluebbers, Ph.D. and Richard Haney, Ph.D., two leading soil scientists working for the Agricultural Research Service, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wrote The Organic Center's Critical Issue Report (CIR 2006.2), "Assessing Soil Quality in Organic Agriculture." The full report is available for free at: http://www.organic-center.org/science.environment.php.

The report explains why better tools are needed to manage the transition of soils when farming methods change from chemical-based to organic.

"How we manage soil and how the soil responds to this management are critical issues facing the long-term success of our society," says Alan Franzluebbers, ecologist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Watkinsville, Georgia and co-author of the report. The proposed minimum-data-set (MDS) approach for assessing soil quality is composed of routine chemical and biological assays that can be carried out in most soil testing laboratories for a collective cost of less than $100 per sample.

In 2007, The Organic Center plans to begin a national survey of soil quality on conventional, transitional and organic acreage. The Center's project will apply, test and refine the MDS approach, and integrate the measures into an index of soil quality.

"Farmers and scientists have recognized for decades that well-managed organic systems improve soil quality," says Chuck Benbrook, Ph.D., and chief scientist of The Organic Center. "But better tools and solid data are needed to quantify these benefits and identify the best strategies to maximize them."

The degradation of soil quality continues in the United States as a result of erosion, the compaction of soils, leaching of nutrients, and loss of soil structure and biodiversity.

Organic farming methods have great potential to reverse these losses by increasing soil organic matter content, building the pools of nutrients cycling within soils, and enhancing soil microbial communities. The Organic Center's work on soil quality seeks to accomplish two goals.

First, development of practical tools for farmers, crop consultants, extension specialists, and agronomists to use in the field in mapping the course for cost-effective transitions from conventional production to organic management. New tools are needed to determine how quickly a soil can be transitioned, how resilient the soil is likely to be during the transition process, and how soils and crop yields are likely to respond to key organic farming practices and inputs. Soil microbial activity, in particular, can offer a benchmark for transitioning from conventional to organic farming systems.

"There is a need to provide farmers with a soil test tool to guide a cost-effective transition," says Richard Haney, soil chemist with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Temple, Texas. "Microorganisms are very sensitive to changes in the soil and we can take advantage of this fact by tracking the impact our management practices have on soil microbes."


The Organic Center's second goal is to develop methods to quantify the benefits to farmers, rural communities, and the nation from improvements in soil quality possible through organic management. Key benefits that will follow expansion of organic production, and which need to be quantified, include: increased efficiency of nitrogen use; less reliance on purchased sources of nutrients; reduced runoff and leaching of nutrients and pesticides, and hence improved water quality; more stable crop yields; and higher returns to farm labor and management.

The Organic Center's next Critical Issue Report focusing on soil quality will be released in the spring, 2007. It will address the potential of organic farming systems to increase the efficiency of nitrogen use in corn production in the Midwest.

The Organic Center is a 501 (c) (3) organization founded in 2002 to present and provide peer-reviewed scientific evidence on how organic products benefit human and environmental health. The Organic Center's research and educational efforts are funded through individuals, foundations, businesses and government programs.

For information about The Organic Center, its current programs and scientific reports visit www.organic-center.org.

Science is showing that organic fruits and vegetables not only taste better, but they are better for you. Nutrient content in organic fruits and vegetables is, on average, higher than in conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. In many cases, the amount of antioxidants found in organic fruits and vegetables is 30-percent higher compared to conventionally grown produce.

Taste plays a huge factor in converting consumers to try new foods and according to a Minnesota Opinion Research Inc. poll, 43 percent of consumers say taste is a major reason why they purchase organic fruits and vegetables. So what are the other 57 percent waiting for?

"People have a lot of misconceptions about what an organic meal tastes like," says celebrity chef Akasha Richmond. Eighty-five to 90 percent of the ingredients she uses in her A-list recipes are organic. "Because organic is associated with something that is good for you, people think it will be too healthy and have no taste. But after they try it, most people are shocked at how much more flavor some of their favorite foods have."

And while chefs like Richmond have known instinctively for years that organic produce can add flavor to their menus, a new state of science review, published by The Organic Center, shows why organic fruits and vegetables often taste better.

Published studies have analyzed the sensory appeal of organic fruits and vegetables compared to their conventional counterparts.

Organic fruits and vegetables tend to score higher in taste because they are sweeter than conventionally grown foods. Scientists say this is because of the nutrient density of organic produce and their smaller size. Conventional farming methods are designed to produce bigger fruits and vegetables, but increasing cells size adds more water, diluting the concentrations of both vitamins and natural flavors.

Organic apples, strawberries and tomatoes showed some of the most significant differences in taste, according to the report.

The report also dispels another misconception about freshness. Contrary to what most people believe, organic fruits and vegetables often have a longer shelf life than conventionally grown foods. The higher levels of antioxidants, considered a natural preservative, are actually part of what enables some organic fruits and vegetables to store longer. The other contributing factor is the lower levels of nitrates that come from synthetic fertilizers, which aren't used in organic farming.

Science is showing that organic fruits and vegetables not only taste better, but they are better for you. Nutrient content in organic fruits and vegetables is, on average, higher than in conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. In many cases, the amount of antioxidants found in organic fruits and vegetables is 30-percent higher compared to conventionally grown produce.

To get a copy of the taste state of science review, go to http://www.organic-center.org and visit http://www.MO2010.org to find out how you can make a difference by just eating 10-percent organic.

Boulder, Colo. - (June 13, 2007) - Much more than the fate of the multi-billion-dollar fresh leafy greens industry is at stake in the wake of the 2006 fall's E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak linked to pre-packaged spinach products.

Why? Because increasing daily consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables is an essential first step in improving the health of the average American. Any factor that erodes confidence in the safety of fresh produce undermines ongoing efforts to increase consumption of these healthful foods.

According to a Critical Issues Report released in June 2007 by The Organic Center, the good news is that since last fall, growers and processors of fresh leafy greens, especially in California, have adopted significant, new prevention-based food safety practices aimed at preventing another outbreak.

The study, Unfinished Business: Preventing E. coli 0157 Outbreaks Caused by Leafy Greens, is authored by The Organic Center's chief scientist Charles Benbrook, Ph.D. While noting progress made, the report highlights several additional steps that are justified in light of current science and the magnitude of the issue.

The Western Growers Association led the effort leading to adoption by processors and handlers of a set of "Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) Metrics." Market leader Fresh Express has committed $2 million for research on how to prevent future outbreaks, and Natural Selection Foods has implemented a new "test and hold" program that has helped ensure that all shipped product is pathogen free.

"Prevention of foodborne illness outbreaks requires innovation, attention to detail and diligence from 'farm to fork,'" says Dr. Benbrook.

The new report provides an in-depth discussion of the likely causes of the 2006 outbreak, and includes a dramatic series of pictures of the outbreak field and surrounding area. "One lesson learned is that cattle, manure and fresh leafy greens make for a volatile mix," according to Benbrook. Until more is known about how pathogenic E. coli finds its way to leafy green fields, the report calls for one-half mile separation between grazing cattle and leafy green fields. The GAP Metrics currently require only 30 feet.

The new report is available at no charge in .pdf form at The Organic Center's website, www.organic-center.com. Click on "State of Science" in the menu bar and then on "Food Safety" to download the report, or go to The Organic Center's website.

Organic Plant-Based Foods ARE More Nutritious, and Provide on Average a 25% Nutrition Premium

BOULDER, Colo. - March 18, 2008 - A comprehensive review of 97 published studies comparing the nutritional quality of organic and conventional foods shows that organic plant-based foods (fruits, vegetables, grains) contain higher levels of eight of 11 nutrients studied, including significantly greater concentrations of the health-promoting polyphenols and antioxidants.

In this first comprehensive review of the scientific literature comparing nutrient levels in organic and conventional food completed since 2003, a team of scientists conclude that organically grown plant-based foods are 25% more nutrient dense, on average, and hence deliver more essential nutrients per serving or calorie consumed.

Magnitude of Differences Heavily Favors Organic Foods

Several methods were used to place the magnitude of the differences in nutrient levels between organic and conventional foods into perspective. In two-thirds of the matched pairs favoring the conventional food, the differences in favor of conventional were under 10%, compared to 26% of the matched pairs in which the organic food was more nutrient dense by a margin under 10%.

The premium in favor of the conventional food was 21% or greater in just 15% of the matched pairs in which the conventional food was more nutrient dense, whereas in the more nutrient dense organic food matched pairs, 41% favored organic by 21% or more, and 24% of the pairs were 31% or more nutrient dense.

The largest differences were in the case of the flavonoid quercetin, where the organic foods were 2.4-times more nutrient dense on average, and nitrates, where levels were 1.8-fold lower in organic foods (a desirable nutritional feature).

The consistency of the differences observed, the relative importance of the nutrients for which the organic samples tended to be markedly higher, and the sizable advantage in many of the organic foods within matched pairs lead the team to conclude -
"Yes, organic plant-based foods are, on average, more nutritious in terms of their nutrient density for compounds validated by this study's rigorous methodology."

Commenting on the results, Dr. Neal Davies, a professor in the School of Pharmacology at Washington State University, and a study co-author, said "We have carried out many careful comparisons of both nutrient levels and biological activity of antioxidant polyphenols in organic and conventional foods over the last five years. Not only are we seeing a general trend in favor of the nutrient density of organic food, but also evidence that nutrients are often present in organic foods in a more biologically active form."

 

For More Information Contact:

Dr. Charles Benbrook, The Organic Center: cbenbrook@organic-center.org, 541-828-7918

SOURCE: The Organic Center

Forty New Studies Published in Last Six Years Provide a Firm Foundation for Some Clear-cut Answers: Yes, Organic Plant-Based Foods ARE More Nutritious, and Provide on Average a 25% Nutrition Premium

BOULDER, Colo. - March 18, 2008 - A comprehensive review of 97 published studies comparing the nutritional quality of organic and conventional foods shows that organic plant-based foods (fruits, vegetables, grains) contain higher levels of eight of 11 nutrients studied, including significantly greater concentrations of the health-promoting polyphenols and antioxidants.

In this first comprehensive review of the scientific literature comparing nutrient levels in organic and conventional food completed since 2003, a team of scientists conclude that organically grown plant-based foods are 25% more nutrient dense, on average, and hence deliver more essential nutrients per serving or calorie consumed.

Nutrient levels were studied in 236 matched pairs of foods with scientifically valid results on the levels of 10 nutrients, plus nitrates (high levels are undesirable because of food safety risks). Each matched pair contains, for example, an apple crop grown organically and another apple crop from a nearby conventional farm with similar soils, climate, plant genetics, irrigation systems, nitrogen levels, and harvest practices.

The new report is published as a "State of Science Review" by The Organic Center and is entitled "New Evidence Confirms the Nutritional Superiority of Plant-based Organic Foods." The co-authors are Charles Benbrook, the Center's Chief Scientist, Xin Zhao of the University of Florida, and three Washington State University (WSU) scientists Jaime Yanez, Neal Davies, and Preston Andrews. Dr. Andrew Weil, a Center board member, wrote the "Foreword."

The full report and its executive summary are freely accessible on the Center's website (http://www.organic-center.org/science.nutri.php?action=view&report_id=126).

It is helpful to know which conventional foods are most likely to be grown with pesticides, and which foods  have natural barriers such as a thick skin that can protect the edible food from some of that pesticide residue.  High risk foods are best bargains for buying "organic" even if the cost is greater. 

Remember, health costs are not just about food cost, but also about health care costs and lost productivity from illness and loss of energy.

Conventional Fruits and Vegetables with the Highest Pesticide Dietary Risk Index Scores:

Imported

Fruits
Grapes: 282
Nectarines: 281
Peaches: 266
Pears: 221
Strawberries: 78

Vegetables:
Sweet bell peppers: 720
Lettuce: 326
Cucumbers: 317
Celery: 170
Tomatoes: 142

Complete Dietary Risk Index can be found in the full report, downloadable at The Organic Center

About The Organic Center
The Organic Center, based in Boulder, CO, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2002 to generate and advance credible, peer-reviewed scientific research and information on the health and environmental benefits of organic food and farming - and to communicate those benefits to the public through education, resources and information. By doing so, it helps promote the conversion of more farmland to organic methods, improve public health, and work to restore our natural world through more sustainable and ecological practices. All of The Organic Center's research reports and publications are available free at www.organic-center.org. Individuals can also sign up for our free monthly e-newsletter, The Scoop. For information about The Organic Center, its current programs and scientific reports please visit www.organic-center.org or call 303.499.1840.

Helping Consumers Minimize Pesticide Exposures

The Organic Center's report also presents lists of fresh fruits and vegetables that score the highest using the DRI. Two lists cover domestically grown fruits and vegetables, while two others apply to imported produce that typically enters the U.S. market in the wintertime.

The organization hopes consumers will follow these lists in determining which organic fruits and vegetables will most significantly improve their personal pesticide dietary risk equation.

Conventional Fruits and Vegetables with the Highest Pesticide Dietary Risk Index Scores:

Domestic

Fruits
Cranberries: 178
Nectarines: 97
Strawberries: 56
Peaches: 54
Pears: 48

Vegetables
Green beans: 330
Sweet bell peppers: 132
Celery: 104
Cucumbers: 93
Potatoes: 74

SOURCE: The Organic Center

Driving pesticide risks downward is important because, according to pediatrician Alan Greene, M.D., chairman of The Organic Center's board of directors, "Recent science has established strong links between exposure to pesticides at critical stages of prenatal development and throughout childhood, and heightened risk of pre-term, underweight babies, developmental abnormalities impacting the brain and nervous system, as well as diabetes and cancer."

"Yes, with surprising frequency, all Americans, including infants and children, are exposed to pesticides via their diet and drinking water," added Dr. Benbrook.

In fact, Dr. Benbrook noted, recent USDA pesticide residue and food consumption surveys show that most people consume three to four residues daily just through fruits and vegetables.

"Accounting for residues in conventional milk, tap water and other foods, the average American exposes him or herself to ten to 13 pesticide residues daily," Dr. Benbrook added.

The frequency of multiple pesticide residues in conventional produce contributes significantly to each person's daily dose. Multiple residues are eight-times more likely in conventional produce than in organic produce. Reasons why include:

• A conventional spinach sample in 2006 testing was found to have nine residues, a kale sample had 10, and a raisin sample contained 11;
• Almost half the conventional peach samples in 2006 contained five or more residues;
• Conventional sweet bell peppers top the multiple-residue chart, with two samples containing 12 pesticides in 2003 testing; and,
• More than one-third of conventional fruit and vegetable samples in 2006 contained multiple residues.

Converting Nation's Produce Farms to Organic, Coupled with Buying Organic Imported Produce, Would Reduce Pesticide Risks by 97%

The Organic Center bases its 97 percent risk reduction estimate upon a "Dietary Risk Index" (DRI), developed by the EPA's Office of Inspector General (OIG). The EPA-OIG used the index in a 2006 appraisal of the impacts of the 1996 Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) on pesticide dietary risks.

The Organic Center applied the same DRI to estimate the changes that would occur in risk levels if all produce were grown using organic methods. The Organic Center concluded that a 100 percent reduction in risk is unattainable because of the widespread use of pesticides on conventional farms, and the movement of pesticides in the air and water onto organic farm fields.

"While it will take years to convert most American fruit and vegetable farms to organic methods, the process is well underway and accelerating fast, especially in the Western U.S.," Dr. Benbrook noted. Already, organic produce accounts for nearly ten percent of retail sales of fresh fruits and vegetables. Several major fresh produce grower-shippers have recently announced aggressive timetables to convert all or most of their fruit and vegetable acreage to organic, assuming consumer demand continues to grow.

The report points out that a substantial reduction in pesticide exposure will remove, or markedly lesson, an important risk factor for several serious public health problems.

SOURCE: www.organic-center.org

Converting the nation's eight million acres of produce farms to organic
would reduce pesticide dietary risks by about 97 percent, according to
research from The Organic Center

The Organic Center provides the first-ever quantitative estimate of the degree to which pesticide risks from food can be eliminated through adoption of organic farming methods in "Simplifying the Pesticide Risk Equation: The Organic Option," a new State of Science Review by Dr. Charles Benbrook, the Organic Center's chief scientist.

Less than three percent of the nation's cropland produces fruits and vegetables. Yet, according to The Organic Center, these crops account for most of the pesticide risks from dietary exposure in domestically produced foods. The 97 percent risk reduction can only be achieved if converting domestic cropland of organic is coupled with consumers choosing only imported produce that is certified organic.

The estimates are based on up-to-date pesticide residue data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency's current methods for estimating pesticide dietary risks.

Founded in 2002, The Organic Center is a non-profit devoted to presenting and providing peer-reviewed scientific evidence on how organic products benefit human health and environmental quality.

Other findings and information shared in the report include:

• An analysis of the significantly greater pesticide risks linked to consumption of imported conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables, as compared to domestically-grown produce.
• Rankings of dietary risk levels in select conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables, arranged to help guide consumers seeking to minimize pesticide risks.
• Suggestions on how to meet dietary guidelines for fruit and vegetable intake in the winter, while also reducing pesticide exposures.
• An overview of pesticide residues found in milk.

The Organic Center offers a free download of its report from their website. 

The Editor at Organic Center Newsletter reports that in Europe, there is a lively debate going on in the U.S. soil science and climate change communities about the impact of various farming systems on soil carbon sequestration and net greenhouse gas emissions.  As the underlying science is settled, models will emerge for projecting the impact of various farming systems on greenhouse gas emissions, and these models can then be used to support meaningful labeling programs and carbon trading or credit schemes.

One factor that adds complexity to such estimates is well known – the level of organic matter in the soil plays a direct role in how much additional carbon the soil can hold, and hence how the soil will respond to a given change in management practices.

In general, the higher the organic matter level in the soil, the less additional carbon the soil can sequester.  As a result, the carbon sequestration benefits of any farming system that can raise soil organic matter concentrations from, say 1.5% (i.e., a degraded soil) to 3%, are enormous and will likely take one to three decades to achieve.

But all soils have a practical limit on organic matter levels, and hence soil carbon sequestration cannot go on forever, at least not while continuing to use land for food and fiber production.

These practical realities frame an important policy issue that has not yet received any serious attention – What happens to farmers who have preserved their soil organic matter, and/or rebuilt it to near-maximum levels through, for example, several years of careful organic management?

The Organic Center
P.O. Box 20513
Boulder, CO USA 80308
tel 303.499.1840
fax 419.858.1042
www.organic-center.org

Dallas-based Dean Foods Co., the parent company of WhiteWave Foods, opened a 23,000-sq.-ft. research and development center in Broomfield, CO.

WhiteWave, maker of the Silk and Horizon Organic brands, is also located in Broomfield.

 

Safeway announced in May 2008 that it will market through its Lucerne Foods division the O Organics and Eating Right brands across all retail channels and in food service and international markets.

O Organics, initially developed by Safeway, is one of the leading organic brands in the country.

Colorado State University received a three-year $500,000 grant from Aurora Organic Dairy of Boulder, CO, to study animal welfare, veterinary medicine, growing perennial forage crops and optimizing soil fertility for organic pasture development in the Rocky Mountain West.

Aurora announced that it will work with CSU's College of Agricultural Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition.

Aurora says it will share its findings with the organic agriculture community.

On April 29, 2008 the long-anticipated report by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production (IFAP) was released.  This is a remarkable report that will surely trigger spirited debate for many months, if not years.

"Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production" (Download PDF), covers the history of IFAP and the growth of CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations), the public health risks associated with IFAP, environmental risks, and impacts on rural America (e.g., jobs, quality of life, community institutions, local governance).

A mammoth effort went into the production of the report, spanning 2.5 years and costing $3.4 million

The Commission was chaired by John Carlin, former Governor of Kansas and included 15 well-known members, e.g., the Leopold Center's Fred Kirschenmann, Marion Nestle of New York University, and Dan Glickman, former Secretary of Agriculture. More than a dozen nationally-recognized experts supported the work of the Commission as consultants or authors of background papers.

The Commission's ED Robert Martin are among the most compelling parts of the report.  Martin describes in the Preface how the "agro-industrial complex" tried to thwart the work of the Commission and has for years influenced public policy in these areas:

"...while some industrial agricultural representatives were recommending potential authors for the technical reports to Commission staff, other industrial agriculture representatives were discouraging those same authors from assisting us by threatening to withhold research funding for their college or university.  We found significant influence by industry at every turn: in academic research, agriculture policy development, government regulation, and enforcement."    

"At the end of his second term, President Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation about the dangers of the military-industrial complex – an unhealthy alliance between the defense industry, the Pentagon, and their friends on Capitol Hill.  Now, the agro-industrial complex – an alliance of agriculture commodity groups, scientists at academic institutions who are paid by the industry, and their friends on Capitol Hill – is a concern in animal food production in the 21st century."

"The present system of producing food animals in the United States is not sustainable and presents an unacceptable level of risk to public health and damage to the environment, as well as unnecessary harm to the animals we raise for food."

According to the Organic Center Newsletter, organic farm production and animal care standards meet or exceed the majority of recommendations in the report. Indeed, implementation of the recommendations in the report by conventional livestock producers would substantially "level the playing field" between conventional and organic farm operations.

Two New EHP Studies Highlight the Developmental Impacts of Pesticides

A team of scientists funded by the U.S. government studied the impact of proximity to pesticide applications and the risk of childhood cancer in a sophisticated, nation-wide study that included records on over 25 million children up to 14 years old.

The team found elevated risk for several types of childhood cancers as a function of living in areas with intensive pesticide use.  Elevated cancer risk was found for Hodgkin lymphoma, Wilms' tumor, renal carcinomas, Ewing's sarcoma, thyroid cancers, and malignant melanoma.

Moreover, there was "a remarkably consistent dose-response effect seen for counties having greater than 60% of the total county acreage devoted to farming."

Danish scientists studied male reproductive development among children born to women working during pregnancy in the greenhouse industry in Denmark.  Sons of mothers working in greenhouses in the high-pesticide exposure group had triple the risk of cryptorchidism (a malformation of male genitals), compared to boys raised in Copenhagen.  The sons of women working in greenhouses  suffered from a variety of  reproductive abnormalities and/or problems and various reproductive system hormone imbalances.

The authors point out that these adverse developmental effects occurred despite the very strict worker-safety protocols in place in the Danish greenhouse industry

Sources:
S.E. Carozza et al., "Risk of Childhood Cancers Associated with Residence in Agriculturally Intense Areas in the U.S," and

H.R. Andersen et al., "Impaired Reproductive Development in Sons of Women Occupationally Exposed to Pesticides during Pregnancy," Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 116, No. 4, April 2008.

My family buys a weekly box of organic fruit and vegetables from a local organic delivery service.  This small business is run locally, and buys its produce from local suppliers when possible...and from local organic wholesalers who supplement their stock with both regional and international organic produce.

I've noticed that some of the pieces of fruit and veggie are seconds -- in that their size, shape and color aren't premium, uniform and spit polished :-) ... but they are invariable delicious, well seasoned (as in not too green nor too ripe)...and the price is better than I can get in the grocery store.

And I save the shopping time and gasoline in my car to go buy them myself.

We've saved money by not having to go shopping as often, and the quality of our meals has improved because I just didn't have organic selection available at our nearby grocery stores. 

You might try it...search Google or Yahoo, etc. for +organic +delivery  and your city. 

You might be lucky enough to find a CSA -- a community supported agriculture supplier in your community.  That's even better in the areas of freshness and local farmer support!  But I live in the heart of Los Angeles, and the closest CSA is probably close to 100 miles of urban sprawl away from us!

Bon appetit!