Apples, Oranges and DDT

My grandmother has told me in shock and chagrin, with emphatic tones, how she used to stand on the back of the sprayer as a young woman basking in the wet droplets of DDT she and her father were spraying on the fruit trees in the middle of a hot summer. She says this aghast that she was that exposed to what is believed to be such a harmful chemical. Now, I'm not writing this to argue for or against DDT (however, I am primarily for...it's just a different discussion), but every time I have thought of this story, I have wondered "why, if DDT is SOOOO terrible and causes so many birth defects etc etc, are her children and grandchildren normal healthy?" Right? I mean, if DDT is so terrible, my grandmother, exposed to large amounts of the chemical through farming practices should probably have passed on serious birth defects to her children, or maybe it would skip a generation and show up in mine. We have our defects, we're a bit crazy (and no, not in a diagnosable way), but none of us are walking around with half an arm or missing a head. In fact, some of us wear glasses and some don't, some are overweight, some aren't. Neither my dad nor his 4 brothers nor anyone in my generation has (as far as I know) any kind of disease that would be linked to DDT exposure. The only thing that could really be said to run in our family is Type 2 diabetes, but it goes back in the generations that weren't farmers and probably was passed down in lifestyle as much as anything else. With all this said, in the midst of the "green" craze lately, I've wondered if it would be wise for me to evaluate the chemicals and pesticide use in conventional food. I'm generally, if you couldn't tell, very skeptical of the need for organic food, but I decided to try and be responsible about this one life God has given me and actually do a little research. What I found was interesting, so I'm passing it on.

Pesticide residue was found in a high percentage of fruits and vegetables farmed both here, in the states, and abroad: http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELDEV3003674. However, the level of pesticides would have to be excessively high in order to cause damage (from what I can tell...and I am not a statistician). For instance, Thiabendezole, is a very common preservative used to keep fruit and vegetables, such as apples, from rotting before it's gets to you. It is applied directly to the produce. But problems didn't show up in the lab animals until they had 13000 times the exposure we are likely to get, http://www.epa.gov/oppsrrd1/REDs/factsheets/tbz_factsheet.pdf. THIRTEEN THOUSAND. Ok, put the pesticide jug down, but eat your non-organic apples. That's my conclusion over all as far as produce is concerned. Yes, these studies are more about one pesticide and it's effect and not the cumulative effect of multiple, but I'm still thinking that the USDA might be right when it says that the amount in our food is very, very little.

My bigger concern is what's added to processed food (i.e. unpronounceable words on labels) and hormones in meat and dairy products, things that are actually added directly to food (pesticides, btw, aren't generally sprayed on to your food directly, a lot of them are applied well before the food actually appears and gets passed through one of God's greatest filters....the ground). So, if I find anything interesting, I'll let you all know. :)