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Growing concerns that pesticide residues in food may be damaging to health lie behind a rising public demand for organic products

THE BIG ISSUE IN SCOTLAND
OCTOBER 18-24, 2001

By Sam Bartlet

Photograph: Bob Green

      You are, so the saying goes, what you
eat. While I've never seen myself as quite
the same as a freshly-pulled organic
carrot(soiled exterior hides juicy and
invigorating inner, perhaps), what you
put in doesn't only affect what comes
out, it is perhaps the major factor
which affects your health.

      I should at the outset declare an
interest here. The memoryof childhood
midnight feasts (raspberries, carrots and
peas, handpicked under cover of
darknessfrom my mother's carefully
nurtured garden) still brings a frisson
of the forbidden. Pigging,out on sherbet
dips or chocolate biscuits under the
bedclothes?
Forget it, call me swampy.

      But I know I'm lucky to have had this
kind of start - creamy milk, new from the
coo and a view rolling all the way to the
Cheviots from the kitchen garden (albeit
tempered by my on-going 'thing' for
smocks and bailer twine.) It was a
natural introduction to organic food
before the term had even been
invented.

      It was also before genetically-modified
crab-crossed tomatoes had been dreamed
of, except by Heironymus Bosch, whose
visions of hell and heaven, including
The Garden of Earthly Delights, can be
stretched to crystallise the current debate
about food production.

      Even Rural Affairs Minister Ross
Finnie agrees to an extent, having upped
payments available to Scottish farmers
in an effort to increase the number
converting to organic production.
 
      "Organic farming brings benefits to
the environmentand the consumer," he
said "through reductions in the use of
chemicals and the production of food in
a healthy natural environment."
 
      The implication being that pesticide-
drenched produce isn't as good for you
as its glossy waxed-covered skin might
suggest, in a Snow White's apple kind
of way.

      I mean, people thought Agent Orange
(made by our old friends Monsanto in
one of their previous guises) only took
the leaves off trees, rather than
producing birth defects infuture
generations.

      In some cases, eating artificially
fertilised, weed-killer drippin' veg can
seriously damage your health, making
people genitally, rather than genetically
modified. It is feared hormone-disrupting
pesticides are responsible for failing
sperm counts and other unpleasant side
-effects such as breast growth in boys.

      Another compelling reason for eating
more organic food is perhaps the simplest
- it tastes far better than water bloated,
superspeed injected pre-mushed veg that
is grown at a far quicker rate than is, for
want of a better word, natural.

      Do the blind taste test - if you care
about how things taste when you put
them in your mouth, you might be
converted too. Something you do
every day, four times a day (or more)
should be pleasurable.

      But as well as producing better tasting
stuff, organic production is also better for
workers in the far off lands that actually
get the sunshine we don't.

      It's better because the premium price
paid for organic produce is often tied into
an ethical trading framework, so workers
actually get paid a better wage for
growing the stuff we want.

      It's also better for them because they
aren't being covered in chemical sprays
and pesticides that are banned in this
country because they are simply too toxic
to pass British safety tests.

      Though even produce grown to
conventional European standards
sometimes sends the 'toxinometer'
needle flying and consumers are
officially warned to peel their
carrots to a depth of two inches.

      Of course, I trust the big
multinational agrochemical
manufacturers which also
coincidentally happen to genetically
modify grains and fruit so they can
sell more toxic pesticides.

      The question is, why is the Scottish
Executive changing its own rules on
protecting the environment to facilitate
GM crop trials - despite local opposition,
the threat of contamination of organic
farms, and the fears of "lethal" pesticide
run-off into the nature conservation area
at Munlochy Bay in Rosshire? Maybe
freshwater and marine wildlife aren't
going to complain too loudly.

      The Executive should be taking more
of a lead, especially when consumers have
tried to vote with their wallets, or isn't
that what devolved power is about?

      They should sling out the GM giants
and make us a healthier nation, rather
than letting big business push us towards
being the worlds biggest call centre.

      So here's a suggestion. Grow your
own - grab a window box and stuff it with
seeds, or if you're lucky enough to have
an allotment or a garden, make sure
you're growing healthy things.
If you can't stand getting soily hands,
buy as much organic stuff as you can.

      More government help should mean
more production should mean more
choice should mean more sales should
mean more demand should mean
cheaper prices should mean more sales..
.. I think. A virtuous circle is the
suspiciously Blairite buzzword.

      But to square the circle of healthy
eating and global transport. Buy as
much as you can from as as close to
home as possible. Join a food co-op,
support your local growers. Bolster
some home grown talent while
indirectly helping clean up our
environment.

      With about 70 percent of organic food
still being imported, keeping things as
local as possible means we'll get the
benefits of increased domestic
production,as well as supporting
Scottish communities.

      Our reputation as the sick man of
Europe may be related to this country's
almost pathological consumption of,
in technical parlance, shite.

      Healthy eating is a concept that
fails to rest easy with the Scots. It's
much easier to go for a pie, or deep
fried Mars bar.
But our health (and increasingly our
environment) is broke, so we should
fix it.

      Look at the recent health scares
and ask yourself if there could be a
link between cheaper and cheaper
food and the growing number of
outbreaks of BSE, e-coli, salmonella,
CJD, and foot-and-mouth? I bet Adam
and Eve didn't have these health
problems, because in the beginning all
food was organic.

      So for once I agree with John Major
about getting back to basics. And no,
I haven't been paid for this article in
organic lettuce.

      But that's what I'm off to spend my
cash on, before heading home to the
Borders and sneaking into my mum's
lovely vegetable garden for some
midnight feast provisions.