Around 80% of Americans have been exposed to the plant pesticide chlormequat, which causes fertility and growth issues in animals, according to a new study published Thursday…
Fantastic. I ate that almost exclusively for years because I thought it was the healthier option.
You’ll be fine. This is one of the regular studies that doesn’t use humans, but rather creatures that evolved similar (but not the same) systems as humans, that the media picks up to regularly scare people.
“Don’t worry baby, I brought protection”
(Opens a ziplock bag of Cheerios)
Getting crumbs in my bed is a surefire way of ending any coital activities, so… Mission achomlished?
Referring to it as “coital activities” is also a good way to shut things down.
Don’t be fatuous, Jeffrey.
Ladies love a cunning linguist with a massive… vocabulary.
Heart healthy and a birth control? Harvey Kellogg eat your heart out.
From this day forward, using Cheerios as birth control will be called “busting a honey nut.”
Get that cheery O
It looks like organic products mostly avoid this.
- 11/12 (92%) of conventional oat-based products had it
- 1/8 (12.5%) of organic oat-based products had it
(from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-024-00643-4/tables/2 )
Of course, they just use more of different pesticides.
Are you saying that organic oat-based products use more pesticides than conventional oat-based products? Or are you talking about organic products in general? In either case, I’d be interested in learning more if you have any good sources.
In general, organic foods don’t contain less pesticide residue.
For the layman:
For the scientific reader:
I upvoted. Thanks for providing sources. I read both. My takeaway is that the amount of pesticide residue on conventional products is considered safe, but organic products contain less pesticide residue.
I think that Scientific American article is low quality in general (which is a shame–I used to subscribe to them). I think the relevant part is this quote:
According to the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, the top two organic fungicides, copper and sulfur, were used at a rate of 4 and 34 pounds per acre in 1971 [1]. In contrast, the synthetic fungicides only required a rate of 1.6 lbs per acre, less than half the amount of the organic alternatives.
- Their reference is https://ncfap.org/, which leads to a broken website for me.
- It’s talking about usage of two specific fungicides from over 50 years ago.
(The article has other red flags as well that suggest lack of rigor.)
The paper seems more rigorous to me, but it actually refutes your point:
While conventional produce was between 2.9 and 4.8 times more likely to contain detectable pesticide residues than organic produce, samples of organic produce frequently contained residues.
That said, I think the important point is that both organic and conventional food are considered safe. Both papers agree with that, as does Harvard Health, which I consider reputable, although it also says that organic produce has less pesticide residue:
According to USDA data, organic foods have fewer pesticide residues than conventionally grown produce. But the amounts for both types of produce are within the level for safe consumption. And it’s unclear if the pesticides used in organic farming are safer than nonsynthetic pesticides used in conventional farming.
(from https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/should-you-go-organic )
Perhaps you would consider editing your original post to get rid of the “more of”?
Looks like Quaker Oats farmers were following the law so I really can’t blame them. Just need to get the law changed again
Not just mice, they also tested in pigs - with various degrees of effect. The alarming thing is how pervasive it is in humans.
Sure, but mice and pigs are not humans, which is the point. They evolved to sometimes have different reactions to the same chemicals that we have reactions to. It could very well be that this pesticide does not pose a risk to humans.
And honestly, we have to have pesticides to feed a hungry world. And herbicides. Especially herbicides, as increasing CO2 in the atmosphere will cause a ‘global greening’ effect as well as a greenhouse effect, which will result in stronger and hardier weeds. We just can’t risk massive crop failures anymore. I don’t like it any more than you do, but there really isn’t another solution. Especially if you want people to stop eating so much meat.
Okay then what is a suitable animal to test on?
But pesticides and herbicides are also breeding less robust crops. E.g. corn doesn’t need something to discourage bugs or competitive plants, so it slowly loses that ability. And maybe it slowly loses some of nutrients we want on the way.
Besides which, isn’t the point that we humans learn to fit into the ecosystem?
It’s not that the animals aren’t suitable to test it on. It’s fine to do preliminary safety tests with animals. The problem is that the media runs with the story before it’s also tested on humans as if reactions in mice will always be the same as reactions in people, when they often are not.
“Hey we’re conducting a study to see if this stuff is fatal or alters your hormones, who wants to be first?”
Whether or not you find the idea of such a study ethical, it doesn’t make the animal studies any more accurate as to how they affect humans.
Imagine if we didn’t know whether or not chocolate was safe and tested it out by giving it to dogs.
Does that illustrate the problem better?
Nonono, we need to not use horrible fertilizers and pesticides, and when the land is mined out from low-productivity farming on marginal soils, we just clear more old-growth forest to keep up for a few more years. And when we’re out of rainforest, the first people affected by sky-high food prices will be poor brown people, not westerners, so that’s fine.
Surprised it isn’t cornflakes but I’ve still got to ask: what’s the venn diagram between people who eat Quaker Oats and people who fuck? It’s got to be in the single digits.
I’m curious what it is that you eat which influences what makes you fuckable.
Also, on which date do you tell someone that you eat Quaker Oats as a warning?
