Appropriate sampling methods and statistics can tell apart fraud from pesticide drift in organic farming.

ABSTRACT: Pesticide residues are much lower in organic than in conventional food. The article summarizes the available residue data from the EU and the U.S. organic market. Differences between samples from several sources suggest that organic products are declared conventional, when they have residues-but the origin of the residues is not always investigated. A large number of samples are being tested by organic certifiers, but the sampling methods often do not allow to determine if such residues stem from prohibited pesticide use by organic farmers, from mixing organic with conventional products, from short-range spray-drift from neighbour farms, from the ubiquitous presence of such substances due to long-distance drift, or from other sources of contamination. Eight case studies from different crop

SUBMITTER: Benzing A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8292382 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature