Sir, – Perhaps “conventional” growers should consider notifying their customers that their products “contain pesticides”? Maybe organic growers would not feel the need to make health claims if the public were made more aware of the growing methods. In his book, In Defence of Food, Michael Pollan explains how one “conventional” farm he visited was so toxic after being sprayed with agro-chemicals that no human being could step foot on it for two days. A new study making headlines that organic foods are not better than conventional ones focuses on their nutritional make-up, which is probably not all that dissimilar, but ignores the fact that one is sprayed with chemicals and one isn’t.
Personally I would prefer to obtain my nutrition from food that that is not sprayed with harmful toxins designed to kill other living organisms; with cancer rates rising exponentially should we not be wondering about the build-up of these toxins in the body? The taste alone is enough to convince me.
In addition, I am interested to know what are these “health claims” that Prof Mike Gibney is referring to (“Organic growers urged to tell truth”, Home News, September 15th)? – Yours, etc,