Chicago Tribune Investigates Pesticide Residue in Peaches

The Chicago Tribune has released the results of a preliminary 2008 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) study that purportedly found “more than 50 pesticide compounds . . . on domestic and imported peaches headed for U.S. stores.” According to the August 12, 2009, article, “Five of the compounds exceeded the limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], and six of the pesticides present are not approved for use on peaches in the United States.”

USDA reportedly sampled washed conventional peaches from more than 700 sites, including Chile, South Carolina and Georgia, as part of its Pesticide Data Program, which does not enforce violations but uses them to identify problematic practices. “Although most pesticides in peaches were at levels well below EPA tolerances,” states the Tribune, “some scientists and activists remain concerned about even low-level exposure, especially to [sic] pregnant women and children.”

The newspaper also commissioned its own test of both organic peaches from California and conventional peaches bought at farmers markets in Illinois and Michigan. Using the same federal laboratory as USDA, the Tribune apparently found only one pesticide, fludioxonil, on the organic peaches, and three or fewer pesticides at low levels on the Michigan and Illinois peaches. The report notes, however, that fludioxonil is not approved for use in organic farming, although products containing less than 5 percent of the EPA tolerance for any legal pesticide may still be labeled organic. “You want to maximize the healthfulness of children’s diets by making sure they get plenty of fruits and vegetables,” a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Environmental Health told the Tribune. “But . . . you want to minimize their exposure to pesticides, and we know that the best way to do that is by giving them as much organic produce as possible.”