The organic myth - Myth: Organic food is 100 percent pesticide-free - Brief Article

Better Nutrition, August, 2003

Myth: Organic food is 100 percent pesticide-free.

Truth: While organic farmers don't apply environmentally harmful chemicals to crops, they are permitted to use safer pesticides where necessary. The organic designation never really meant 100 percent pesticide- or chemical-free, despite public perception. The designation actually describes a method of farming that is as ecologically sound as possible. Also, chemical pesticides are now so widespread that they appear regularly in the rainwater that drenches all crops, conventional and organic alike. These chemicals can also drift through the air onto organic fields from conventional fields located miles away.