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Food panel

Food panel. September 5, 2013 Lynn Markham UW-Extension UW-Stevens Point. Questions. What is your current work focused on and how does it relate to emerging needs in food systems work? What role can Extension play in addressing these emerging needs?. Why food?.

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Food panel

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  1. Food panel September 5, 2013 Lynn Markham UW-Extension UW-Stevens Point

  2. Questions • What is your current work focused on and how does it relate to emerging needs in food systems work? • What role can Extension play in addressing these emerging needs?

  3. Why food? • I’ve been growing & preserving food since I was little – family tradition • I love to eat good food & am used to garden-fresh • I want to minimize my own chemical exposures – I have enough past exposures as a chemist & farmworker • I want healthy food for my kids • It’s fun finding frogs & butterflies in our garden

  4. Current work • Blend of professional and personal work • Website: Protecting Wisconsin’s Groundwater (Drinking water) • Education about pesticide use & health effects in WI • Wisconsin Land Use Megatrends: Agriculture • Reducing Pesticide Exposure in your Food & Water

  5. How much pesticide is applied per acre? No pesticide data available for cranberries which are grown on 19,000 acres in WI

  6. Pesticide Application Map Based on 2005 avg pesticide application per crop

  7. After pesticides are sprayed in a field, where do they go? • Ideally, pesticides would harm only the target pest and then break down into harmless substances • Pesticides are found in: • Food • Air • Drinking water • Soil

  8. Which foods have the highest & lowest pesticide risks? Pick 5 servings a day from the dirty dozen and you will consume an average of 14 different pesticides. Choose 5 servings from the Clean 15 and you'll consume fewer than 2 pesticides. Source: USDA data Dietary risks calculated by Environmental Working Group

  9. What do these photos have in common? Interview http://www.npr.org/2011/04/21/135605139/mothers-pesticide-exposure-linked-to-kids-iqs

  10. Role of Extension for emerging needs Provide learning opportunities about • Food growing practices and local farms • Expanding research field about health effects of pesticides, especially how they affect children’s ability to learn • Ways to support sustainable farming • Various types of CSAs • Health insurance rebates for CSA members • Local investment club focused on farmers and food entrepreneurs

  11. Bedfod Falls Monitoring Wells Municipal Well Private Well Ag-chemicalplume 0 water table water flowdirection 20 40 upper sandstoneaquifer DEPTH BELOW GROUND SURFACE (feet) 100 confining shale layer 120 lower sandstone aquifer 260

  12. Cancer • Changes reproductive systems • Birth defects • Difficulties learning: ADHD and lower IQs What are the health effects of agricultural pesticides?

  13. Why care about pesticides in your food? • Your health • The health of children you may have in the future • Health of people who grow your food • Health of people in your community – drinking water safety • Health of other animals: fish, frogs, bees, etc.

  14. Fruits & vegetables grown in the U.S. have lower pesticide risks than imported foods (except green beans) 2008 report by The Organic Center based on data from the USDA

  15. Pesticide use on WI crops • Annual use on major agricultural crops: • 13 million pounds of pesticides in WI • Over 2 pounds per person Source: Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics Service, 2004-05 data

  16. After pesticides are sprayed in a field, where do they go? Science has found they: • contact farmworkers during application • attach to soil and get tracked into homes • evaporate into the air, and drift for miles depending on dust & wind conditions • remain on/in the plant that becomes food • run off into lakes or streams • soak into groundwater

  17. Agricultural pesticides in WI private drinking water wells • Estimate that 1/3 of private drinking water wells in WI contained a pesticide or pesticide metabolite

  18. Agricultural pesticides in WI private drinking water wells • Wells in areas with more cropland were more likely to contain pesticides, and often contained a mixture of multiple pesticides • Very little is known about the health effects of being exposed to a mixture of pesticides

  19. Drinking water standards for pesticides used in WI • Wisconsin farmers reported using 90 different pesticides in the 2005 growing season • Only 16 of these pesticides have drinking water standards. We don’t test for the other 74 pesticides.

  20. Babies & children are more vulnerable to pesticides Because… • Their bodies are developing and growing, from one cell into a whole person • They consume much more food and water per pound of body weight than adults • Babies and children do not have the same levels of defensive enzymes present as adults, so they are less able to detoxify the pesticides when exposed. OP pesticide detoxification enzymes increase at least until age 7.

  21. Of 14 pesticides used on corn, 6 pesticides are unknown or possibly cause cancer Of 24 pesticides used on potatoes, 3 pesticides are known or likely to cause cancer + 8 unknown/possible Health: Cancer Potatoes Fungicides Azoxystrobin Boscalid Chlorothalonil (96%) Copper hydroxide Cymoxanil Difenoconazole Famoxadone Mancozeb (66%) Mandipropamide Mefenoxam PropamocarbHydroch Potatoes Fungicides (cont.) Pyraclostrobin Triphenyltinhydrox. (51%) Zoxamide Other Chemicals Diquatdibromide Maleic Hydrazide Field corn Herbicides Acetochlor Atrazine Clopyralid Dicamba, Sodium salt Diflufenzopyr-sodium Dimethenamid-P Flumetsulam Glyphosate Glyphosate iso. salt Mesotrione Nicosulfuron Rimsulfuron S-Metolachlor Insecticide: Tefluthrin Potatoes Herbicides Linuron Metribuzin Pendimethalin Rimsulfuron S-Metolachlor Insecticides Bifenthrin Esfenvalerate Imidacloprid Novaluron Thiamethoxam Known or likely to cause cancer Unknown or possibly causes cancer Not likely to cause cancer in humans according to the 2010 EPA list

  22. Lawn pesticides The EPA reviewed the top 10 lawn and garden pesticides: 1 is likely to cause cancer, 4 may cause cancer, and 4 others are unknown

  23. Atrazine – a common pesticide • 1.7 million pounds were applied to 2.4 million acres of corn in WI in 2010 • Detected in 25% of private wells in WI • Germany & Italy banned atrazine in 1991; EU banned it in 2004 using the precautionary principle

  24. Atrazine – a common pesticide, used for decades • Linked to cardiovascular damage & reproductive difficulties in some people who are exposed over the health standard for many years (EPA)

  25. Atrazine – a common pesticide, used for decades Recent study from Fall 2011: • Women exposed to atrazine in their drinking water below the health standard of 3ppb were associated with • more menstrual cycle length irregularity • more instances of greater than 6 weeks between periods • reduced mid-luteal phase urinary metabolites of progesterone; insufficient progesterone impairs implantation and leads to infertility and repeated spontaneous abortions Cragin, LA et al. Menstrual cycle characteristics and reproductive hormone levels in women exposed to atrazine in drinking water. Environmental Research, 2011 Nov; 111(8):1293-301. Epub 2011 Oct 13

  26. Atrazine – a common pesticide, used for decades • Reduces reproduction in fish by 19-39% at levels near the drinking water standard • Male frogs exposed to 1/30th of drinking water standard as tadpoles developed both male and female sex organs Hayes et al. Hermaphroditic, demasculinized frogs after exposure to the herbicide atrazine at low ecologically relevant doses. PNAS . 2002 vol. 99 no. 8, 5476-5480 Tillitt et al. Atrazine reduces reproduction in fathead minnows. Aquatic Toxicology. 2010 . 99:2:149-159.

  27. Health: Learning in farmworkers’ children Children exposed to pesticides were the same physical size but had reduced • eye-hand coordination • 30-minute memory • ability to draw a person Exposed Not exposed Unexposed Exposed Guillette, et al. 1998. EHP, 106 (6): 347-353.

  28. Health: Organophosphates • Organophosphates (OP) are a group of insecticides that kill insects by irreversibly inactivating an enzyme that is essential to nerve function in insects, humans, and many other animals • Found commonly in: • Apples • Sweet bell peppers • Cranberries • Grapes • Peaches • Mushrooms • Wheat • Celery • Corn grain • Green beans • Almonds Study found rinsing produce did not reduce levels of chlorpyrifos, a common OP

  29. OPs & learning in mice • Research by Warren Porter and his grad students at UW-Madison has found that dosing female mice with chlorpyrifos leads to daughters that are slow learners – afraid & hesitant • “We’re dosing our kids with neurotoxins like chlorpyrifos, and then we wonder why they’re having trouble learning and concentrating,” said Warren Porter Haviland et al. 2009. Reproductive Toxicology

  30. Health: OPs & IQ • Chlorpyrifos is found in amniotic fluid and crosses the placenta into the baby • Prenatal exposure is linked to smaller head size, lower birth weight and attention problems • Studies in urban and rural areas found that children born to mothers with higher levels of organophosphate pesticides in their urine during pregnancy had lower IQ scores at ages 2-3 and 6-9 Bouchard, M.F. et al. 2011. Rural agricultural children; Salinas Valley, CA Engel, S.M. et al. 2011. Inner city children; NYC Rauh, V. et al. 2011. Inner city children; NYC

  31. “Organic” means grown without synthetic pesticides. “Natural” has no definition. Good news • When children ate organic fruits, vegetables, juices and corn/wheat products, they had much lower pesticide levels in their urine Lu et al., Organic Diets Significantly Lower Children’s Dietary Exposure to Organophosphorus Pesticides EHP, Feb 2006

  32. Conclusions • We are what we eat • Some common pesticides are known to cause cancer, affect reproduction, and limit the ability of children to learn • We know very little about the long-term health effects of most pesticides or mixtures of pesticides • When pesticides are applied to the land, they affect the health of • Our food • Our drinking water • Us & our children • Farmworkers • Animals including frogs, birds & bees

  33. If you know of a group that might be interested in this presentation, please talk with me Thank you!!Comments?Questions?? Lynn MarkhamUW-Extension UW-Stevens Point715.346.3879lmarkham@uwsp.edu

  34. Exercise: Design a low pesticide menu that’s affordable • See farm fresh atlas • Use your own experience related to other sources of food and menu planning • Design a menu

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