|
|
|
Chemicals Used in
Agricultural Food Production
- A 1983 United Nations Report estimates that
there are approximately 2 million pesticide poisonings annually, nearly
four per minute worldwide. Dozens of
 pesticides
sprayed on our food are known to cause cancer. In the early 1900s, one out
of every 33 Americans died of cancer. Today, one out of every three
Americans dies of cancer. Many other pesticides and fertilizers have not
been fully tested to know their effects on humans. Exposure to modern
pesticides, which didn't exist in the early 1900s, is thought by many to
be one of the primary reasons for the high rise in cancer deaths.
- Children born today are exposed to these
chemicals from birth, perhaps even before birth. According to Richard
Wiles, who directed the Environmental Working Group study using the
Environmental Protection Agency methodology, children accumulate between
25 and 35 percent of their lifetime cancer risk from several carcinogenic
pesticides by the age of five.
- Chemical use on America's farmlands is
increasing. For example, in 1960, U.S. farms used 46 pounds of chemical
fertilizer per acre, while in 1995, the average amount used was 129 pounds
per acre. Grain farmers increased herbicide use ten times between 1964 and
1982. Pesticide use has almost doubled since 1964, and feed crops such as
corn and soybeans account for most of this jump. Corn receives more total
herbicides, insecticides and chemical fertilizers than any other crop
grown in America, and 80% of this corn is routinely fed to livestock.
- The major source of pesticide residue in an
American's diet is from meat, poultry, and dairy products. The reason is
that animals eat grains with pesticides and these pesticides are
bio-accumulating chemicals--chemicals that are stored in body tissues.
When we eat animals, we receive a concentrated dose of the chemicals they
have ingested in their lives and, in turn, our bodies become storehouses
for these chemicals.
- Confidential industry reports to the FDA,
obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal high residues of
natural and synthetic sex hormones in meat products even under ideal test
conditions. This is contrary to repeated and explicit assurances by the
FDA and USDA. Following legal implantation in the ear of steers of Synovex-S,
a combination of estradiol and progesterone, estradiol levels in meat
products ranged up to 20-fold in excess of the normal. Based on
conservative estimates, the amount of estradiol in two hamburgers eaten by
an 8 year old boy could increase his hormone levels by 10%.
Click here for reference materials used for this
article.
|
|
