29/09/2018
Organic farming is not necessarily pesticide-free.
What do we mean by “pesticide-free”?
Here at Future Greens, we grow our produce without pesticides. By that, we mean, we do not apply any of the following to our crops:
1. Insecticides
2. Herbicides
3. Fungicides
4. Bactericides
5. Nematicides
6. Molluscicides
Ok, enough of the -cides.
Some people will say, thanks, but we will stick with organic. People may make the incorrect assumption that organically grown food are pesticide-free. Note that the organic standards disallow only synthetic pesticides. For example, copper sulfate, one of the most common organic pesticides, is used as a fungicide and bactericide. However, copper sulfate is very toxic to bees and other insects beneficial to farming. Copper can also easily accumulate in soils that can approach toxic levels to both plants and animals.
Within the World Health Organization’s pesticide classification across 5 categories, there are many synthetic pesticides in the safest class called “Class U – Unlikely to present acute hazard”. Copper sulfate, the organic pesticide, falls under the riskier “Class II – Moderately hazardous” category.
Full stop. We need to make it clear that this article is not claiming that hydroponic farming is better than organic farming. Both have their advantages/disadvantages and overlapping practices. Rather, we emphasize the need to continue conversations between producers and stakeholders to find improvements to our farming systems.
Pesticides have safety guidelines on application dosage and preharvest intervals, i.e., amount of days that need to pass after which the produce can be safely harvested as the pesticide level has subsided to within safe amounts. We have witnessed improperly trained Filipino farmers in the past who do not follow the proper dosage and preharvest intervals.
Our opinion at Future Greens is that if the choice is only conventionally farmed fruits and vegetables, consumption of such produce should not stop. Fruits and vegetables are too important for our health.
Lastly, our brains tend to make mental short-cuts due to popular, cultural or other reasons, for example, remembering that organic produce is always the safest. We from Future Greens dream of improving that short-cut – that we can find farmer groups whom we can trust due to transparent practices and get convinced enough to buy from them. 😊
You may contact us if you want to visit our hydroponic farm.
Sources:
The WHO recommended classification of pesticides by hazard and guidelines
to classification: 2009 -http://www.who.int/ipcs/publications/pesticides_hazard_2009.pdf
PHILIPPINE NATIONAL STANDARD for Organic Agriculture PNS/BAFS 07:2016 -http://organic.da.gov.ph/images/downloadables/PNS/PNS-Organic-Agriculture-2016-final.pdf
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blue-spots-supermarket-vegetables-undissolved-fungicide-ntuc-073320873.html
https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/french-winemaker-drops-organic-status-for-better-treatments-289349/
Copper toxicity and chemistry in the environment: a review - https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00228784
Copper toxicity, oxidative stress, and antioxidant nutrients - https://doi.org/10.1016/S0300-483X(03)00159-8
Sub-lethal effects of a copper sulfate fungicide on development and reproduction in three coccinellid species - https://doi.org/10.1093/jis/3.1.16
