Is organic agriculture polluting our food with heavy metals?
If I’m reading the banana peels correctly, the prospects for organic agriculture have never been better. Indeed, the most recent batch of bananas I bought came adorned with a “certified organic” sticker that confirmed the virtue of my purchase. It explained, “When you purchase organic produce you are taking part in the HEALING of our land.” This makes intuitive sense. Conventional agribusiness, after all, is a chemically dependent, resource-intensive venture that contributes to global warming, aquatic “dead zones,” and massive land degradation. Organic systems, by contrast, restore soil health, foster biodiversity, and recycle organic matter rather than lading the land with synthetic chemicals. Whereas conventional agriculture follows the law of supply and demand, organic agriculture follows what its founder, Sir Albert Howard, called “the law of return.” Potential waste, according to this dictum, ends up enriching the soil. The law of return, however, has a loophole. One issue frequen
