Pesticides in the Food Supply

As longtime purveyors of organically grown produce, we were heartened to see your article “Preschoolers Face ‘Intolerable Risk’ From Pesticides, Group Says” (Part I, Feb. 28). Pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables are a serious matter, but recent publicity may overshadow what we feel may be even more serious matters.

We worry about what may be on the apple we give to a child, but also worthy of our concern are the people who work in the orchard where the apple is grown. Farm workers and their families in non-organic fields are exposed to much higher levels of chemicals than are any of us who buy produce in a market. The health of the land, too, is important: Ground-water contamination, topsoil erosion, and loss of genetic diversity are all avoided and even reversed by farmers who use organic techniques.

Industrial agriculture had its day. It used simple, direct solutions to problems in a complex, changing system. There were unintended side effects. Recently, we’ve seen people coming to our stores out of fear. That isn’t right. We don’t want people to support organic agriculture because they’ve been frightened or manipulated. We want people to join us because they realize that choices have consequences.

JOHN DOWDELL

San Francisco