Problems with unlisted active ingredients in pesticides and toxic contaminants in fertilizers are well known and have been well publicized. As have the amounts of pesticides found on chemically grown produce.
That is too bad for you . I can only respond to what you say not what you believe. Perhaps you would be well served to announce that earlier in a discussion. With the bottom billion people on this planet facing starvation it would seem the residual chemicals on food over decades should be the very least of our concerns today. I am a realist and I cannot deal with hypothetical threats to my environment. Life is tough enough without that. I look forward to your thoughts on how to improve our food supply in future correspondences.
It is not the percentage of a particular crop found to contain pesticide residues that matters, but the levels of the pesticides. As analytic techniques get more and more sensitive there is no doubt that the percentage of analytical samples that are positive is going to increase. In order to assess the risk to the consumer we need to assess the health impacts of the residues; this is done by comparing the intake to the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for a particular pesticide. The ADI is calculated based on the toxicology of the pesticide and relates to the maximum amount that can be ingested daily for an entire lifetime without no ill effects. I would be very surprised indeed if any of the pesticide residues exceeded the ADI. http://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2009/12/15/experts-on-safety-of-pesticide-residue-in-foods/
Hello, I would like to add that the USDA, and the FDA, are founded by the chair members of Monsanto, fox news and other similar news sources, are funded heavily by big agro business, this should not be an argument, do some research and you soon discover that the world of chemical gardening is created by big oil. Obesity, diabetes, asthma, and allergies have skyrocketed since the rlease of gmo's into the world (they also sell the solution, pharms), there is no place for chemicals in gardening, it's a scam, any gardener in touch with nature knows that there is a wonderful balance of good and bad bacteria happening all the time and both are needed, problem is, all the "horticulturalists" of the world, have been schooled by basically monsanto, making it hard for people with massive knowledge in organic methods to be taken seriously, think about it, you can't receive your "ceritificate" until you pass your pesticide applicators test, everything chemical in gardening can be traced back to monsanto, (est. 1901) just follow the money, it's bad for everyone except them......