transition from chemical to organic farming. As a result, many farmers don’t have the
information they need to evaluate whether going organic makes sense for them. The
USDA’s Coop Extension Service should be encouraging the transition to organics,
but it is not. In the entire USDA bureaucracy there is only one extension agent who
is a qualified expert in organic agriculture. Predictably, he’s located in Santa Cruz,
California.
Farming is hard work, and in many cases farming organically is even harder.
Weeds, harmful insects, fungi, and other pests must be monitored and managed
much more painstakingly, while beneficial insects and soil organisms are encouraged.
Organic growers must keep up with research about alternative methods of pest con-
trol and apply the results on their farms. They must learn to control pests using an
ecosystem approach that requires patience because sometimes it takes several years to
produce satisfactory results. Even more important, organic farmers must care for and
enrich their soil with organic matter and non-chemical sources of the nutrients their
crops require. This is often much more labor intensive that the yearly applications of
fertilizers and pesticides that conventional farmers use.
But organic agriculture is viable and practical for most crops, and farmers who
are motivated can, without too much trouble, find the information and resources
they need to successfully transition more farm operations—such as grains, vegeta-
bles, livestock, eggs, and herbs—to organic methods. In fact, as the success of the
organic agriculture movement has proven, synthetic chemical pesticides are prob-
ably far less necessary than we have been led to believe by their producers. More-
over, the reality is such that chemical pesticide use is almost always harmful to
someone or something, whether farmworkers, consumers, non-target organisms,
or the rest of the environment.^5
The Body Burden
Toxic chemicals, both naturally occurring and man-made, often enter the human
body. We may inhale them, swallow them in contaminated food or water, or, in some
cases, absorb them through our skin. A woman who is pregnant may pass chemicals
to her developing fetus through the placenta. The term ‘‘body burden’’ refers to the
total amount of these chemicals that are present in the human body at a given point
in time. Sometimes it is also useful to consider the body burden of a specific, single
chemical, such as, for example, lead, mercury, or dioxin.
Some chemicals or their breakdown products (metabolites) lodge in our bodies for
only a short time before being excreted, but continuous exposure to such chemicals
can create a persistent body burden. Arsenic, for example, is mostly excreted within
seventy-two hours of exposure. Other chemicals, however, are not so readily excreted
and can remain for years in our blood, adipose (fat) tissue, semen, muscle, bone,
brain tissue, or other organs. Chlorinated pesticides such as DDT can remain in the
body for fifty years. Whether chemicals are quickly passing through or are stored in
our bodies, body burden testing can reveal an individual’s unique chemical load and
Remedies and Reflections | 239