b'YOU ARE MYTH TAKENORGANIC AGRICULTURECOMPILED BY MARCEL BRUINSMYTH: ORGANIC AGRICULTURE IS PESTICIDE FREE and those used in conventional farming is that organic toxins FACT:It is commonly believed that organic farmers do not useare rarely tested for health and environmental safety and there pesticides and that organic food is therefore safer to consumeis no testing for toxic residue levels on organic produce. So, we than conventionally farmed fruit and vegetables. This claim thatknow a great deal about the levels of risk in eating conventionally organic farmers work without using pesticides is a view thatgrown food (and the risk is minimal) but almost nothing about has been spread widely but is clearly false. Pesticides can bethe risks from organically grown food.sprayed on organic fields as plant protection products or used in warehousing as biocides. In many countries a significant partMYTH: ORGANIC AGRICULTURE CAN SCALE UP of the most popular pesticides sold are also approved for organicTO DELIVER A SUSTAINABLE FOOD SUPPLYfarming. For example, in the EU, according to the pesticideFACT:It cannot under the presumptions of today. We wont approvals database, there are currently close to 500 substancesbe able to feed the world by moving to organic agriculture, approved for use as pesticidesof which 28 are approved foraccording to several research studies, including meta-analyses. use in organic agriculture, many of which are neurotoxins orOrganic farming, despite advancements in the sector, produces, with a toxic profile requiring Danger labels. Some of thoseon average, between 43 per cent and 72 per cent less food than pesticides that are allowed in organic agriculture are boron (mayconventional methods. Researchers in 2019 simulated England affect brain, liver & heart); acetic acid (burns skin, eyes, risk toand Wales adopting organic farming to the fullest extent and bees) or copper sulphate (toxic to everything, bioaccumulatesdiscovered that doing so would actually result in higher carbon and persists in the environment). dioxide emissions since more natural resources would be needed Often an organic farm cannot exist without using pesti- to produce the same volume of goods.cides. If a farmer has a pest, fungus or weed problem, she or heA concern that is often heard is that land use in developing must address it or suffer the consequences. Pesticides certifiedcountries has been repurposed from growing food to growing for use by organic farmers, like conventional ones, are designednatural substances to produce organic-approved pesticides. For to kill (with all the environmental health consequences thatexample, a large number of smallholders in Rwanda are growing entails)if they would not take care of the pest or disease,chrysanthemums to be used in the production of natural-based they obviously would not be used. pyrethrins for organic farmers in the West rather than using the The condition for organic pesticides is that they must orig- synthetic equivalent.inally come from a natural source, but this does not imply that natural chemicals are any less deadly (Ebola, Anthrax or RicinMYTH: ORGANIC FOOD IS PESTICIDE FREEare all natural). Another difference between organic pesticidesFACT:This isnt always the case. Unless there is no other choice, 26IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'