Do Organic Crops Have Lower Pesticide Residue Than Conventional Crops?

Two different statements are often used to convince you that organic crops are better for you and for the environment: 1) Organic farmers are not allowed to use pesticides and therefore organic crops have no pesticide residue, and 2) Organic farmers can only use natural pesticides and these are safer for us and for the environment. Which statement is true? Is there a meaningful difference between conventional and organic crops in terms of pesticide use and pesticide residue?

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Is A Natural Toxin Better Than A Synthetic Toxin?

Let’s start by framing our own question. Is a natural toxin better than a synthetic toxin? This is a trick question. A toxin is a toxin. What matters is the level of its toxicity and our level of exposure.

Natural toxins are some of the most dangerous ones in our environment. The difference, usually, between synthetic toxins, ones produced in labs, and natural toxins, ones produced in nature, is that natural toxins usually occur in tiny amounts.

However, when they are used by humans in large amounts for our own purposes, they can be devastating to the environment, to the health of wildlife, and to human health. These points are important when we consider the question of pesticide use in organic agriculture. But, first, what about the chemicals that plants use to defend themselves?

Naturally Produced Plant Toxins

Plants produce a host of chemicals to defend themselves from insects and other predators. For example, a common plant toxin is salasylic acid, which, despite it’s therapeutic use in human medicine, is a highly toxic chemical. In fact, most all of the natural pesticides that plants produce to defend themselves are just as bit as poisonous, if not more, than artificial pesticides.

But, here is when you’ll smack yourself on the head. We take in many times the amount of natural plant toxins every day than we do artificial pesticides. Each and every one of use living in American take in about 1500 mg of natural pesticides each day. On the other hand, we consume abut 0.09 mg of artificial pesticides. So, in other words, we take in more than 15,000 times the amount of natural toxins! Natural is safe, right?

Organic gardening, with all it’s promises, often uses plants that are resistant to certain pests. Bruce N. Ames, food scientist at the University of California at Berkeley, used a new variety of celery as an example, saying it contained ten times as much carinogenic materials than a more traditional one. Am I saying that organic vegetables could be more carinogenic. Yes, I am. ¹Kovács, Lajos, et al. 100 Chemical Myths: Misconceptions, Misunderstandings, Explanations. Springer, 2014.

Do Organic Crops Use Pesticides?

Organic farmers can and do use pesticides. It is not actually true that they are only allowed to use natural pesticides. They can also use certain synthetic pesticides.

Examples of natural pesticides are copper-based compounds such as copper hydroxide and copper oxide, both used as fungicides.

Natural Pesticides Used On Organic Crops Are Extremely Dangerous!

Copper is a heavy metal and thus will build up in soils and the surrounding environment, including waterways, where it can pose a danger to animal health. And, copper oxide is highly toxic to humans and animals and to biodiversity in general.

Since higher levels of such agents must be used, the danger can be even greater. What’s more, such copper-based pesticides may be subject to contamination by toxic heavy metals.

Copper sulfate is another widely used fungicide, algicide, and herbicide. It is thought to be even more dangerous than the leading synthetic alternatives. This stuff is so dangerous that inhaling it can cause a hole in your septum, the little bone that divides the inside of your nose.

Do you think that something that can burn a hole inside your nose sounds safe to use on crops? After reading about it, I’d be afraid to use it even with complete safety gear! ²Hazardous Material Fact Sheet – Cupric Sulfate, New Jersey State Department of Health. https://nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/0549.pdf

Just as a toxin is a toxin, a pesticide is a pesticide. Any compound that can effectively fight fungi or crop pests such as insects is, by its very nature, a poison.

The false halo presented by proponents of organic agriculture is, at best, misleading, at worst, dangerous. Chemicals used in any kind of agriculture, including organic, are not inherently safe. In regards to dangerous toxins, natural can be a meaningless and misleading word.

DDT Is Natural

DDT, which has long been banned from use, is a naturally occurring chemical compound! It was synthesized in large amounts and widely used commercially as a pesticide from the 1940s until the early 1970s when it was banned due to the discovery that it was harming birds and fish. It is natural but, as you can see, the term is useless in reference to such dangers. ³Burr, S.A. “DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane).” Encyclopedia of Toxicology, edited by Philip Wexler, Elsevier, Academic Press, Amsterdam, 2014, pp. 1141–1143.

The aforementioned copper compounds or even the ordinary pyrethrum pesticides you can buy at your local hardware store are more acutely toxic than the leading synthetics like chlorpyrifos and chlorothalonil and, what’s more, they are more widely toxic, affect a wider range of flora and fauna.

Organic Pesticides Are Not Better Than Synthetic Ones

Organic pesticides have no advantage over synthetic ones at all. They often do not work as well and have a wider environmental impact. Some may not work as well as synthetics against the target pest while being highly toxic to other insects that are enemies of the crop pest!

The more I investigate organic pesticides, the more I see them as a case of ‘the emperor has no clothes.’ These convenient assumptions that the origin of a pesticide alone can determine its safety are more than ignorant, they are profoundly dangerous and the antithesis of proper scientific investigation.

Do Organic Vegetables and Fruits Have Pesticide Residues?

Many people are easily convinced that organic products are not substantially more nutritious than conventional ones. However, they argue that it’s what’s ON the crops that matter. Organic crops, they say, have little to no pesticide residue while conventional crops are just covered with toxic chemicals.

Nothing could be further from the truth. So-called organic pesticides are found as residues on organic crops, sometimes in levels that exceed safe limits. Chronic exposure to these compounds, whether copper-based or others, can lead to serious health consequences.

Lower Residue Data For Organic is FALSE

But you may have heard the opposite many times, that organic crops have lower pesticide residues. You’ll be glad you read this, then, after you learn that these claims are stating that organic crops have lower levels of synthetic pesticide residue!

Most of the data used to support these claims come from studies that did not test for common organic pesticides. Instead, the researchers pretended as if the organic pesticides discussed here were not even pesticides so that the majority of the chemicals tested, as in this study, are not allowed to be used on organic crops, while the copper compounds and other allowed chemicals were ignored. ⁴Gómez-Ramos, María del, et al. “Pesticide Residues Evaluation of Organic Crops. A Critical Appraisal.” Food Chemistry: X, vol. 5, 2020, p. 100079., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fochx.2020.100079.

Copper sulfate, that stuff that burns a hole in your nose if you breathe in enough of it, may indeed be found as a residue on some organic crops; and other dangerous chemicals as well. Until further tests are carried out that do check for these organic pesticides, we won’t have accurate data.

However, don’t panic. The point of this article is to show you that organic crops, in regard to pesticides, are not safer than conventional ones and may be more dangerous.

You should be concerned with ANY pesticides and you should be aware that organic ones are often more dangerous than synthetic ones and are used in larger amounts.

But, while exceptions can occur (⁵Simeone, V., et al. “Residues of Rotenone, Azadirachtin, Pyrethrins, and Copper Used to Controlbactrocera Oleae(Gmel.) in Organic Olives and Oil.” Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A, vol. 26, no. 4, 2009, pp. 475–481., https://doi.org/10.1080/02652030802562938.) most pesticide residue levels on all crops are very low, well below the Acceptable Daily Intake limit as set by federal standards. This is more meaningful than it seems.

Understanding Safe Levels

Let’s say that the level of a certain pesticide on your apple is less than one percent of the ADI. Well, this means that it is actually 10,000 times lower than levels that were actually determined to be safe in animal experiments.

See, the ADI is based on chronic levels of a chemical given to animals. When an upper limit is found to have NO EFFECT on health, the ADI is then set to 100 times below that level. In other words, the ADI is so tiny it’s completely negligible.

You are actually exposed to more naturally occurring toxins, produced by the plants themselves and occurring naturally within the fruits and vegetables you eat, then toxic pesticide residues. And, furthermore, you are much more likely to be in danger from household chemicals, including bug sprays, than from residues on foods.

No Reason To Pay More For Organic

Consuming organic crops will have no positive impact on your health. And, it will likely have no negative impact. Still, as we have seen, the pesticides used may be more dangerous, in general, than synthetic alternatives. At best, it’s a wash.

There is no reason to pay more for organic fruits and vegetables. ⁶Trewavas, Anthony. “A Critical Assessment of Organic Farming-and-Food Assertions with Particular Respect to the UK and the Potential Environmental Benefits of No-till Agriculture.” Crop Protection, vol. 23, no. 9, 2004, pp. 757–781., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cropro.2004.01.009.,⁷Wilcox, Christie. “Are Lower Pesticide Residues a Good Reason to Buy Organic? Probably Not.” Scientific American Blog Network, Scientific American, 24 Sept. 2012, https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/science-sushi/pesticides-food-fears/.

Key Summary Points For “Do Organic Crops Have Lower Pesticide Residues?’

Here are the key takeaway points about the information in this article:

Organic farmers are allowed to use pesticides and they DO use them. These include copper-based pesticides that are extremely dangerous.
Natural pesticides used on organic crops are more toxic than artificial ones.
Claims that organic crops have lower pesticide residues are misleading because the tests do not check for natural pesticides.
Pesticide residues on all crops are, in general, very low and well within safe limits.
You are exposed to many more dangerous compounds in higher amounts from naturally occurring toxins produced by the plants themselves and from household chemicals.
There is no benefit to buying organic fruits and vegetables. They do not offer more nutrition, are not safer, and may be more dangerous than their conventional counterparts.