Column: Buy organic to help avoid pesticides

on August 18, 2014 at 9:12 AM, updated August 18, 2014 at 9:15 AM

By Mark Muhich

The collapse of millions of beehives in the U.S. and around the world within the last decade is one, but not the only danger resulting from the subsidized but unsustainable industrialization of U.S. agriculture.


The destruction of billions of bees, who pollinate most of the fruits and vegetables we eat, began soon after the introduction of pesticides called neonicotinoids.

Neonicotinoids are systemic; they permeate the crops they are designed to protect, and they are broad spectrum, meaning they kill or degrade any insects that contact them.

Neonicotinoids are stable and water soluble, meaning they can remain in the soil and water for years. The Midwest, including Michigan, exhibits the highest concentrations of neonicotinoids in the U.S. due to the heavy application of this pesticide on corn and soy fields.

These vast monocultures of corn and soy fields are planted with genetically engineered (GE) seeds designed to withstand heavy applications of herbicides, like glyphosate.

Seeds are further altered to secrete insecticides within the plants themselves.   Genetically Modified Organisms, GMO's, are found in 95 percent of all the processed foods sold in the U.S. even though GMO's are banned in 60 other countries, and are suspected of contributing to a litany of health problems from immune deficiencies to gastro-intestinal disorders, to allergies.

A majority of U.S. states are debating whether to require labels on foods that contain GMO's. Manufacturers like, MONSANTO, have mounted multi-million dollar legal and lobbying campaigns against these disclosures.

One argument for truth in GMO labeling would be that American women have 10 times more glyphosate, an herbicide, in their breast milk than European women.

Where do these billions of bushels of GMO corn and soy go? Mostly into ethanol fuel for our vehicles, and to raise animals in huge confined animal feeding operations, CAFO's. CAFO's are relatively unregulated.

CAFO's can inject steroids and antibiotics into animals to speed weight gain, regardless of the effects on public health.

CAFO's can spread huge amounts of unprocessed manure onto fields that leach into streams, on a scale that no municipality could, fouling adjacent aquifers.

Many CAFO's are owned by international conglomerates, and have caused economic havoc in hundreds of rural American farm communities.

A glimmer of hope: The fastest growing segment of the retail food industry is... organics! Walmart purchased Wild Oats the second largest organic wholesaler.

The fastest growing restaurant franchises are "sustainable" or organic, or even vegan! Though MONSANTO and Big AG are gigantic, they are not bigger than the marketplace.

Ask your grocer "Where is the organic section?" Ask the waitress for the organic menu. Let's patronize our local organic farmers.

If it is "organic", legally it cannot contain GMO's or pesticides or synthetic fertilizer or herbicides or steroids or growth hormones or antibiotics or any other poisons. Want to change the world? In one word, "ORGANIC" is the word.

- Mark Muhich resides in Summit Township and is chairman of the Conservation Committee, Central Michigan Group Sierra Club