Greetings!   

     Police and public health officials in New York City last week broke up a ring of pesticide smugglers who were bringing in illegal poisons made in China, as well as retailers who were selling them.  The products were primarily consumer-oriented,for use on household roaches and rats.  They are both cheaper and more effective than most of the similar products made in the U.S., thus their appeal.  Unfortunately they are also incredibly toxic to humans.  None of the active ingredients is legal here, and certainly not at the doses that the Chinese products contain.

    This story attracted my attention as much for what it didn't say as what it did. If household pesticides banned in the U.S. are commonly used in China, why wouldn't the same be true of agricultural chemicals banned here?   Are there any laws at all governing pesticide use in China, on farms or in structures? 

         There are dozens of agricultural pesticides that are no longer legal for use on farms in the U.S.  There are more still that are highly restricted as to which crops they can be used on, how long before harvest they can be used, etc.   Most if not all of these chemicals are still widely used in other countries, of which China is likely one.  And an increasing percentage of our food -- especially our fruits and vegetables -- comes from other countries.  Most of these countries have less strict regulations about pesticide use than we do.  Who knows if the laws are even enforced. In another recent incident in China, tens of thousands of watermelons burst in the fields because farmers used a much higher dose of a "growth regulator" (considered a pesticide here) than recommended by the manufacturer.  In the United States, this is a violation of federal law, and in California the law is strictly enforced by county officials.  Apparently this is not the case in China, and farmers who were not trained or regulated believed that if a little bit of a chemical was good, more must be better.  

   Yet somehow, our food system considers a head of garlic just a head of garlic, whether it was grown in California or China (the world's largest garlic producer). Imported produce is not required to be grown according to U.S. regulatory standards, and just a tiny amount of the food brought into the country is tested for microbial or pesticide contamination.  Why shouldn't importers be required to prove, at a minimum, that food brought into the U.S. is not grown using chemicals that are illegal here.  And why should farmers in the U.S. have to compete domestically with any product that doesn't meet these standards?  The overall affect is to harm domestic producers while rewarding foreign ones who are using objectionable practices.  

    The best way to be sure you aren't eating banned pesticides is to buy produce grown in the U.S.  And the best way to support farmers who use the least toxic pesticides on the planet is to buy organic. 

Pablito