Organic pesticides: Not an oxymoron - copper

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Well written! Informative!

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/**/Organic Pesticides: Not An Oxymoron/*

Friday, 06/17/11 3:28pm

Maureen Langlois

Vermont Public Radio

http://www.vpr.net/npr/137249264/

It may seem counterintuitive, but foods that are grown to organic

standards can contain commercially manufactured pesticides.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of produce that found nearly 20

percent of organic lettuce tested positive for pesticide residues piqued

our interest. Lots of the lettuce contained quite a bit of spinosad, a

pesticide marketed by Dow Chemical under the brand name Entrust.

So we called Jeff Gillman, a professor of nursery management at the

University of Minnesota, who has written about organic practices for lay

readers. Right off the bat he told us:

" When people are buying organic food, they often make the irincorrect

assumption that there are no pesticides. It's true that organic

production often uses fewer dangerous chemicals, but certain pesticides

are allowed. "

It turns out that a key factor in chemicals being cleared for use on

organic crops is whether they occur naturally. Spinosad, for example,

comes from the soil bacterium Saccharopolyspora spinosa. It can fatally

scramble the nervous systems of insects. It's also poisonous to mollusks.

The USDA maintains an official list of substances

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that can and can't be used for organic farming. Other potent natural

extracts that have been approved for use as pesticides include...

..