Safe Food From Contaminated Soil? Biodynamic Agricultural Method Shows Successful Field Research
Marie Mauger
Many farmers and consumers are unaware that persistent
organochlorine pesticides (POPs), such as DDT, are active
in our soils and still a health issue many years after their sale
in the United States was banned.1 The situation remains
critical because most agricultural ground has been exposed
to POPs at some time, cropping and treatment histories are
notoriously inaccurate, and there is a long breakdown time
for toxins in untreated soil – about eighty years for DDT.
In addition, POPs continue to be released into the environment,
sometimes accidentally by U.S. producers or
transported by weather or in produce from countries where
pesticides are used without restriction.