In September 2000, Friends of the Earth published news from a government report that there has been a significant increase in the quantity of fresh fruit and vegetables containing pesticide residues. The results are contained in the 1999 report from the Working Party on Pesticide Residues. Farmers and local authorities together used nearly 25,744 tonnes of pesticide active ingredients in the UK during 1999, made up of some 400 different pesticide chemicals. A proportion of this total ends up in water sources and therefore infiltrates into our conventionally farmed food chain. However, regulators are now realizing that the presence of some pesticides in water, however carefully farmers use them, is almost inevitable even on organic farms.
Careful use can reduce the amount of pollution, but can never prevent it completely.
In fact, each year it costs water companies over 100m to clean up pesticides from our water 11 this cost is passed on in water bills. Although rare, pesticide residues have been detected in organic food in some MAFF surveys. As pesticide levels in conventional food have been either negligible or below the maximum residue level in most studies, it is not strictly correct to claim that conventional food is more contaminated than organic food. There are studies showing a lower pesticide content in organic food and others that show no difference in pesticide content. Organochlorine pesticides provide a valid platform for research as they are persistent and degrade very slowly and are thus more likely to remain as residues than other kinds of pesticides.