Pesticide-free Produce, Pesticide-free Kids
By now, I think most people understand that organic food is supposed to be healthier for you. But I think there are still some people who feel that the health benefits are a bunch of marketing hype.
Well, this new study suggests that it isn't just hype -- organic food really does reduce kids' exposure to some potentially risky pesticides. From the Seattle P-I:
The peer-reviewed study found that the urine and saliva of children eating a variety of conventional foods from area groceries contained biological markers of organophosphates, the family of pesticides spawned by the creation of nerve gas agents in World War II.
When the same children ate organic fruits, vegetables and juices, signs of pesticides were not found.
The interesting thing to me was that, after just 5 days of going all-organic, the organophosphate pesticide markers virtually disappeared from kids' urine. That's a pretty remarkable result, and enough that it led the scientists -- normally a restrained bunch -- to state:
[W]e were able to demonstrate that an organic diet provides a dramatic and immediate protective effect against exposures to organophosphorus pesticides that are commonly used in agricultural production. [emphasis added]
All the more reason to spring for the organic apples.
And in other toxics news: make sure you don't use boiling water to sterilize your polycarbonate bottles! Apparently, heat can make your bottles leach chemical yuckos (actual scientific term!) into your water. Consider yourself warned.
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Cap and Dividend: Climate Pricing and Fairness
Climate change is regressive by nature, but solutions don't have to be. A fair cap-and-trade system can be progressive, broadly sharing both the burdens and the potential benefits of preventing climate disruption. We have an enormous opportunity to get climate policy right -- and we know how it can be done.
In fact, smart policy is our opportunity to fight climate change and minimize economic injustice. This is the single most important economic fairness issue facing Cascadia right now: more important than reforming payday lending, more important even than reforming health insurance. It’s what every advocate for economic opportunity should be losing sleep over -- but then jumping out of bed to help shape the solution.
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