Don’t Worry: USDA Says Pesticide-Laden Food is Safe to Eat
Despite the U.S. food supply already being riddled with copious amounts of pesticides, the United States Department of Agriculture continuously approves new pesticides to be used on U.S. crops. The most recent case of approval revolves around the sale and planting of Monsanto’s genetically engineered dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton. Even more concerning, though, is that the USDA recently claimed that current pesticides levels on food are mostly nothing to worry about, and that we should continue eating food coated with toxic chemicals.
The USDA report states:
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has posted data from the 2013 Pesticide Data Program (PDP) Annual Summary. The PDP summary confirms that overall pesticide chemical residues found on the foods tested are at levels below the tolerances established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and do not pose a safety concern.
The 2013 PDP Annual Summary shows that over 99 percent of the products sampled through PDP had residues below the EPA tolerances. Residues exceeding the tolerance were detected in 0.23 percent of the samples tested. The PDP pesticide residue results are reported to FDA and EPA through monthly reports. In instances where a PDP finding is extraordinary and may pose a safety risk, FDA and EPA are immediately notified. EPA has determined the extremely low levels of those residues are not a food safety risk, and the presence of such residues does not pose a safety concern.”
This isn’t the most comforting news coming from an agency that is supposed to protect our food supply. Of course, as mentioned, it ins’t so surprising, The agency continuously approves new pesticides and GMO crops that are genetically engineered to withstand copious amounts of the toxic chemicals.
As one might expect, pesticides are in fact not safe to eat. Some of the effects of pesticides include:
- Cancer – The dreaded diagnosis of cancer has been linked in over 260 studies worldwide to agrochemicals. Worse, scientists have linked pesticides with several types of cancers, including that of the breast, prostate, brain, bone, thyroid, colon, liver, lung, and more. Some researchers from USC found that “those who lived within 500 meters of places where methyl bromide, captan and eight other organochlorine pesticides had been applied, they found, were more likely to have developed prostate cancer.”
- Obesity and Diabetes – Because pesticides have also been linked to obesity, it’s logical that it would be connected to diabetes, in which obesity often has a role. Some researchers found a higher prevalence of obesity in the participants with high urinary concentrations of a pesticide known as 2,5-dichlorophenol (2,5-DCP). It is important to note that 2,5-DCP is one of the most widely used pesticides on the globe.
- Infertility, Birth Defects, Reproductive Problems – One study states, “Exposure of men or women to certain pesticides at sufficient doses may increase the risk for sperm abnormalities, decreased fertility, a deficit of male children, spontaneous abortion, birth defects or fetal growth retardation.”
- Deterioration in the Ecosystem and Environment – Pesticides can travel distances through the environment. When sprayed on crops or in gardens, pesticides can be blown by the wind to other areas. They can also flow with rain water into nearby streams or can seep through the soil into ground water. Some pesticides can remain in the environment for many years and pass from one organism to another.
And all of these exposures have a cumulative effect, according to independent scientist Anthony Samsel and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientist Stephanie Seneff:
“Negative impact on the body is insidious and manifests slowly over time as inflammation damages cellular systems throughout the body.
“Consequences are most of the diseases and conditions associated with a Western diet, which include gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.”
What/s even more concerning is that the USDA didn’t test for glyphosate – the most widely used pesticide-chemical in the world. This is also the chemical found in Monsanto’s best-selling RoundUp herbicide. Why, you may ask, is this widely used chemical not tested for? Because it is ‘too expensive.’
A USDA spokesperson said it did not test this past year for residues of glyphosate because the test measures required for glyphosate are “extremely expensive… to do on an regular basis”.
It is obvious that the USDA is simply succumbing to corporate lobbying and isn’t terribly interested in protecting the public from toxic chemicals.
Well, of course. It’s all about the deployment of food as a weapon.
Another criminal agency to abolish: USDA, on top of the IRS, NSA, CIA, Rothschild Central Bank aka “Federal Reserve”, and Dept of Education. Abolish them all.
As well as the FDA = Fatal Defects Allowed
Yes, the FDA, as well. Brilliantly said, buddy.
And now the “Trans-Pacific Partnership” goes on the Senate floor in a couple days! A NON ENDING barrage of MASSIVE POISONING of the PLANET! You must call our Rep;s ASAP! and “STOP” the “FAST TRACK AUTHORITY”! AND the Corporate Take over of the world!
The only way to be sure if the food is safe the USDA people need to eat it for a year before they rules on it’s safety.
I find it despicable that glyphosate isn’t tested just because the FDA has deemed it safe!
There is a glaring hole in this story which I would like to address. In addition to the story behind the USDA’s unwillingness to test for glyphosate, this writer left out the fact that testing for the regulatory limits of pesticides does not point out that when one pesticide becomes innoculous to bugs – when insects develop resistence, and the farmer moves on to the latest new “solution,” this farmer generally continues previous applications of the old chemical up to the limit allowed by law, and then adds on top up to the limit for every new chemical that comes into his lineup of “inputs” for that given crop. For example, a couple years ago, EWG, the Environmental Working Group which is the only 3rd party lab (a Public Interest lab NOT funded by agricultural-chemical industry) which tests for chemicals in our food supply, found over 100 different pesticides and related chemicals in the vast majority of conventionally-grown celery sold in American grocery stores. This is re-tested every year and is published as The Dirty Dozen. The reason I am writing is to point out that not only does the USDA NOT test for Glyphosate (Round-up) in our food supply – the most prevalent agricultural chemical, it also does not admit to the fact that every stick of celery, and apple, and raisin, etc., is saturated with many more times the “allowable” level of hundreds of chemicals besides the one they are testing and reporting on. Conventional farmers are framed into needing to continue maximum levels of chemicals when resistence to a previous chemical happens with a crop, in order to even get a harvest at all. I am a retired sustainable farmer and have been intimately involved with growing vegetables for nearly 3/4 century and need to insist – this is another example of the public being misled, lied to, and endangered. USDA is not telling the whole story about the chemicals in our foodstream and people need to wake up to this, tune in to information sources such as EWG, and get better informed. It is MUCH worse than you think or than this article outlines. There is also the unchecked proliferation of other agricultural chemicals that EWG and the USDA do not even test for – EWG tests/talks about mostly pesticides. Conventional farming involves ever-increasing levels of many other categories of chemicals such as: herbicides, fungacides, synthetic fertilizers, hormones, and other pathogens used under no reporting, testing, or oversight mechanism whatsoever. USDA is also a partial sham, as it has turned into a lobbying effort by BIG ORGANIC AG producers getting the government (which is all to happy to comply) to permit another “allowable” chemical which the USDA Certified Organic Label can use in spite of knowledge it is still harmful and/or came from nature originally (bug juice which kills other bugs on contact via CNS damage is bad for animals too, or plant toxins which kill bugs and fungus’ which harm humans but since the “allowable” product came from another plant it gets approved under USDA Certified Organic). Last I checked there were a couple hundred of these questionable or known harmful alternative chemicals which are now “allowables.”
Big Ag is Big Money. Doesn’t matter where it comes from. Meanwhile, buy “Organic” label for sure (less chemicalized) but invest in growing your own no matter where you live, or how busy you are, and this included kitchen gardening (sprouting) and intensive grow strategies. There will be a time soon when we will not be able to even afford “Organic.”
IF you live near anyone in the USDA,tell all your friends who they are and then put it on the internet,so everyone knows…………….