USDA: 85% of foods tested contain pesticides

The USDA runs a program called the Pesticide Data Program where it tests foods for pesticide residues. The 2015 report (released Nov 2016) says 85% of foods tested contained pesticides. One sample of strawberries contained 20 pesticides. Only 15% of foods were free from pesticides.

1. There were 10,000+ samples collected.
2. Apples, cherries (fresh and frozen), cucumbers, grapefruit, grapes, green beans, lettuce, nectarines, oranges, peaches, pears, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, sweet corn (fresh and frozen), tomatoes, and watermelon.
3. Because PDP data are mainly used for risk assessments, PDP laboratory methods are geared to detect the lowest possible levels of pesticide residues.
4. Samples were taken from a variety of US states. Both domestic items and imported items were sampled.

Source
Archive.is backup link to PDF.

European vs US organic food laws

A comparison of US GMO and organic food standards and laws. Note: Standards are usually voluntary in the US, like the USDA National Organic Program of the Non-GMO Project Verified program.

This information is from publicly available sources on the WWW. The name of EU directives are taken from the format of the web page on which they are displayed, thus they might appear to have inconsistent formatting. I don't claim to understand the reason behind the inconsistent formatting. Directives appear to take the format YYYY/nnnn and regulations the format nnn/YYYY where YYYY is the year.


European Union

Quote: "The European Union (EU) has in place a comprehensive and strict legal regime on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), food and feed made from GMOs, and food/feed consisting or containing GMOs.  The EU’s legislation and policy on GMOs, based on the precautionary principle enshrined in EU and international legislation, is designed to prevent any adverse effects on the environment and the health and safety of humans and animals, and it reflects concerns expressed by skeptical consumers, farmers, and environmentalists."

1. The European Food and Safety Authority (EFSA) conducts testing. EFSA Home page. EFSA page on GMO Science. (The EFSA sometimes things GMOs are safe despite the independent studies.)
2. Marketing and importing GMO foods is regulated by the EU, but growing GMO is regulated at the EU country level. 
3. "Regulation No. 1829/2003 prohibits placing on the EU market a GMO for food use, or a food containing or consisting of GMOs or food products produced “from” GMOs, unless an authorization is granted.  Food and feed produced “with” a GMO are excluded from the scope of this Regulation."
4. GMO labeling required except where an ingredient is less than 0.9% of the total (VI.b): "Labeling requirements apply to foods delivered to the final consumers or mass caterers in the EU that either contain or consist of GMOs, or are produced from or contain ingredients produced from GMOs.  Regulation No. 1829/2003 requires that the phrase “genetically modified” or “produced from genetically modified [name of the organism]” must appear clearly next to the ingredient list." 
5. The EU requires traceability for GMO substances. 
6. Directive 2001/18/EC addresses GMO releases into the environment.
7. 1830/2003 addresses more GMO labeling. Labeling of all GMO ingredients is required, even for ornamental things like cut flowers.

Sources
Restrictions on Genetically Modified Organisms: European Union. loc.gov. Last accessed Apr 17, 2016.


US

1. Roundup can be sprayed onto Roundup Ready crops to kill them, and harvested in 2 days thus leading to Roundup in the food chair.
2. Plants that product Bt CRY toxin are allowed in the food system. 
3. Labeling products that contain GMOs are not required except in Vermont, which recently passed a law requiring products containing GMOs to be labeled. Several manufacturers have already indicated they will use the same GMO label for Vermont as for the rest of the country.
4. "Free range" chickens does not mean sunlight ever touched their back. It means chickens are packed into a large, crowded barn together.  

   

   "Free range" chickens collapsing under their own weight.

5. The US uses the "it's safe until proven otherwise" philosophy regarding GMOs. 
6. Non-Organic seeds and other items can be used if  organic seeds are not available, and the "organic" label can still be used. 
7. US companies, like Monsanto, are well-known for lobbying for GMOs, and lobbying against third-party studies.Monsanto job titles even included "influencing the EPA".

Sources

USDA National Organic Program. Link to website.

USDA study finds Americans eating less fruit and veg

The USDA ERS report contains estimates of food availability for 200 food and drink commodities. A "food" would be apple pie, packaged sliced apples, apple juice, or whole raw apples. But a "commodity" would be the raw applies that go into those foods.

This report takes data from 6 food intake surveys between 1994 and 2008 and compares the pounds consumed per person per year. The report also breaks things down by demographics.

• Drop in fruit consumption: from 42.4 to 31.9 pounds per person per year, mostly due to eating less oranges.
• Drop in veg consumption: 172.8 to 161.8 pounds per person overall for children and adults. 
• Drop in dairy: from 220.5 to 211.4 pounds per person per year.  
• Chicken consumption rose slightly, while beef and pork dropped a little across all demographics.

The slight increase in chicken consumption might be regarded as positive, however how you cook the food matters quite a bit. It would be more helpful if the report broke down chicken consumption between "healthy" ways to prepare (like baking) vs calorie-dense, nutrient-sparse "unhealthy" ways: like deep frying. Also, going out to eat will account for a significant portion of "unhealthy" consumption of almost all foods.

Data used
Data sources used were the Food Availability (FA) data and the Loss-Adjusted Food Availability (LAFA) within the Food Availability Data System (FADS) compiled by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).


Source

1. USDA ERS survey, March 2016. Compares two time periods: 1994-1998 and 2007-2008. PDF of full report available, HTML of summary also available for free. 
2. USDA Food Availability Data System. All kinds of charts, spreadsheets, graphs here. 

What does "organic" really mean?

"Organic" means using less pesticides, or no artificial pesticides, and little or no GMOs. But standards vary widely across the world. Organic food product is, for the most part, a self-regulated industry with government guidance in some countries.

US Standards

The USDA National Organic Program creates standards for the US organic farming industry. But since the USDA is part of the FDA, and the FDA is well-known to be soft on GMOs and pesticides, the US "standard" is questionable at best. (March 2016: There is currently a lawsuit against the FDA for violating it's own regulations.)

The USDA NOP has the following areas of responsibility:

1. Manage organic operations. The NOP Intro to Organic Practices PDF is here.
2. Develop regulations and guidance on organic farming. CFR Regulations are here. The NOP organic handbook is here.
3. Manage the national list of allowed and prohibited substances. 
4. Investigate regulatory violation complaints. 
5. Accredit certifying agents. 
6. And a few more items. 
7. Here is a list of certified organic companies in the US and which products are certified organic. There are several fields to search on including company name, city, state, country, and certified products. 
8. Conform to regulations when exporting or importing organic foods.

How USDA NOP defines "organic" practices

1. Practices PDF here. 
2. Avoid use of synthetic use of fertilizers. Note that the US regulations do not ban synthetic fertilizers. But, nitrogen is nitrogen unless it's contaminated with something dangerous. 
3. Avoid sewage sludge* and biosolids. Sewage sludge can contain many toxic chemicals including heavy metals. 
4. Avoid irradiation and GMOs.
5. Use cover crops to reduce erosion.  
6. Use organic seeds unless that variety is not available as an organic product. In this case they can use non-GMO seeds.
7. Use crop rotation to reduce pests and diseases. 
8. Manage pests using Prevention, Avoidance, Monitoring, and Suppression (PAMS). Predatory insects are allowed. As a last resort the growing can use organic pesticides. I assume Bt is allowed in this case as it's a "naturally occurring organism" allowed by the NOP.
9. Organic crops must not receive overspray from non-organic crops if the farm grows both. 
10. Land that has had conventional pesticides applied cannot be used for organic crops for 36 months. 
11. More guidelines on animals are in the PDF.

* Sewage sludge is the sludge left over from sewage processing. Due to poor US regulations and interference from industry, sewage sludge can contain heavy metals and other toxic chemicals, some of which are absorbed by certain crops. From Wikipedia:

Class A sludge is typically dried and pasteurized, and is also known as "exceptional" quality. Class B includes all sludge not classified as Class A. Class B sludge is typically "undigested" and is volatile. Both classes of sludge may still contain radioactive or pharmaceutical wastes.

Now you know the basics of organic food farming.

USDA accused of selectively censoring anti-Monsanto science

The USDA is accused of watering down science, and even punishing scientists, who don't comply with the USDA's notions of safety, paid for by big corporations.

Top USDA officials are linked to biotech companies.

• USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is a vocal supporter of GMOs. 
• Roger Beachy recently headed the USDA's main research department, is a leading GMO advocate with Monsanto ties.

Another conflict of interest. Someone should check their bank accounts to see where money is coming from.