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Comment by djakaitis | Hacker News Reader

Is this something easily avoided by eating more organic foods? Or is the prevalence of this make it unavoidable?

Wikipedia claims that "Some states, including California, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, and Oregon, have banned chlorpyrifos on food grown and sold in their jurisdictions. Those bans remain in effect." It's also 100% banned in foods sold in EU area.

So, not that hard to avoid depending on where you live. Apparently corn, soybeans, wheat, fruit trees are some of the most common crops it's used on.

Apparently it’s still allowed in Australia for agricultural uses. That might change this year.

https://www.apvma.gov.au/resources/chemicals-news/chlorpyrif...

If it’s banned in all those places, does that have a knock-on effect of limiting its profitability thereby causing the market to produce less of it to sell elsewhere?

It still seems to be exported :(

Europe shipping banned pesticide linked to child brain damage to Global South https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2023/03/28/eu-banned-pestic...

Do you got a source that chlorpyrifos is banned in foods sold in EU?

A quick search seems to indicate that imported food can still have been grown with chlorpyrifos: https://www.eurofins.de/food-analysis/food-news/food-testing...

Since we import a fair bit of vegetables and fruit during winter, we may still consume it here in the EU area.

Also, Ascenza Agro and Industries Afrasa that sell chlorpyrifos based products recently tried to overturn this ban, but luckily were not able to: https://www.env-health.org/victory-for-health-european-gener...

It is banned in the EU, "contaminated" goods tend to be caught by the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed.

Looks like banned here in Canada, too. But only since December 2022.

https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications...

Corn: It was often used to protect against rootworms and other pests.

Soybeans: For controlling various insects such as aphids and beetles.

Fruit trees: Including apples, oranges, and stone fruits to manage pests like codling moth and citrus thrips.

Vegetables: Such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and other leafy vegetables to combat caterpillars and other insect larvae.

Almonds and nuts: To protect against a range of insect pests. Cotton: Used for bollworms, aphids, and other pests affecting cotton crops.

The EU has proposed that it be added to the Stockholm Convention ban list, which would lead to it being banned almost everywhere on earth.

It is not permitted for use on organic crops. One will certainly ingest less of this chemical by submitting to an all-organic diet.

This specific pesticide might not be used on organic crops, but plenty of other even-less-well-safety-tested "organic pesticides" may be used instead on organic crops.

The word "organic" is largely a marketing gimmick.

/biochemist,fwiw

While organic might currently be a "marketing gimmick" purchasing organic is an important signal to the market that consumers consider it important. I'll gladly be a first adopter if it helps move the industry and regulations in the right direction.

Organic isn't exactly a marketing gimmick.

If you read the Organic Standards (linked on this page https://www.ams.usda.gov/services/organic-certification/orga...) you'll see it's an earnest attempt to deal with a really complicated subject.

Such as?

That is only partially true, and mostly hyperbolic.

I can't speak for the US, but in the EU this is not true

Yes, as well as glyphosate and products and chemicals not in The National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-7/subtitle-B/chapter-I/su...

Just wash your produce

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