La Petite Chinoise : LPC

I read “It isn’t Easy Being Organic” in the International Herald Tribune a few weeks ago en route to Hanover for a business trip. The article raised a point that I had never considered about organics – the use of pesticides. For some reason (being ill-informed is one of them!), I had it in my head that organic farming does not involve any fertilisers or pesticides. What I know now, is that organic farming does not use industrial fertilisers and pesticides that commercial farming does.

Organic farmers and backyard gardeners use pesticides that have been naturally extracted from the roots, stems and leaves of tropical plants, many of them containing pyrethrins and rotenone.

Pyrethrins are contained in the seed cases of the Chrysanthemum plant and are neurotoxins that attack the central nervous system of all insects. They also have the insect repellent effect and are used to fog mosquitoes. Pyrethrins are biodegradable and considered to be the safest insecticides for food.

Rotenone is reddish and odourless substance, which is extracted from the roots of tropical plants, such as barbasco, nekoe and timbo. It is commonly used in the tropical countries to catch fish. The fishermen release rotenone into the water and the fish float up. Our livers are able to break down rotenone in small amounts. Research has shown that rotenone when injected directly into the veins of rats casued Parkinson’s disease. Does this mean that rotenone is responsible for Parkinson’s disease in humans too?

There are no easy choices, as Mr Alexander points out. But do we or do we not continue to buy organics?

“It isn’t Easy Being Organic” is written by William Alexander, the author of The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden