According to the University of Pittsburg, Montsano's Roundup weed killer is highly lethal to amphibians. [1]

This report was published over a year ago and somehow I've only just heard about it.

Roundup is the second most commonly used pesticide in the US.

That and a recent study [2] reported in the UK that airborn pesticides can cause brain damage and trigger conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease make me want to kiss every organic farmer withing a 500 mile radius of my house.

Pesticides are also linked to fertility problems; brain, stomach, prostate, and breast cancer; childhood leukemia...the list goes on.

Children are especially vulnerable to herbicides and pesticides used around the home, garden, and on pets. I also found, looking around on the Web, more information I hadn't known about...including some of the information here at the Toxic Top Ten: What every parent should know about a child's exposure to pesticides. [3]

The thing that makes me crazy is that a) children are especially susceptible to harm from pesticides and b) pesticide levels in and on fruit often exceed saftey standards even when washed and peeled. So feeding our children fresh fruit like we're told to reduce obesity and improve their diet also can make them very sick.

I'm still unclear though about which health effects are from eating food with unsafe levels. Lots of info on airborne effects, but I'm not getting much about the ingested effects yet from the info online.

Apples are at the top of the 12 most contaminated fruits and veggies.

At least I have my own apple tree, I know that those are safe for my DD.

My mother and grandmother are both organic gardeners, I was raised to believe that organic is the best way to grow food. Now I'm beginning to more fully realize how unusual my upbringing seems to have been in regards to organics and at the same time how much it shaped the kind of home farming I'm doing...it's the only way I can grow food, I simply cannot use anything not organically certified on my property, especially because of my DD.

I'm lucky to have a home orchard, grape arbors, berry patch, and vegetable garden and the resources to care for them organically (eco-friendly nursery two blocks away for garden supplies). I'm also lucky that there are organic grocery stores in the surrounding area although none of them are very close to my house and none of them are cheap. And I'm lucky that there are other local resources like Organics to You [4] and community supported agriculture [5]. I can manage to "go organic"--that is, to grow or buy--50 to 70% of the produce my family eats throughout the year and that much of that produce is local.

I'm also lucky that the school DD is going to is certified Eco-Healthy. [6]

These options that I have should be available to everyone everywhere and it breaks my heart and hurts my head that they are not.