Pesticides and Cancer

Click on the link below to read a fascinating article about the role that pesticides play in causing cancer (breast cancer, in this case)...

http://www.wcrc.org/articles.htm

My doctors suggest that I have colon cancer because of "genetics", but when I read articles like this I can't help but believe that genetics is only a small piece of a much more complicated puzzle.

There are so many environmental toxins that we, as consumers, are not even aware that we are consuming and yet, they are killing us. How do companies get away with this?!? When I was in business school, the most interesting class that I took was one that focused on environmentally- and socially-responsible business. One of the key principles of the class centered around the idea that businesses which are not environmentally and/or socially responsible do not charge the full "long-term cost" for their products. What does this mean? In the case of the article above, the growers of lettuce who choose to use pesticides are able to harvest more produce with each crop than organic farmers can. Because non-organic farmers harvest more with each crop, they can charge less for their produce and still be financially profitable. For example, if it costs the non-organic farmer $100 to harvest his lettuce crop and his work results in 10 bushels of lettuce to sell, he only needs to charge $10/bushel in order to break-even. Any price above that is pure profit! The organic farmer, on the other hand, pays the same $100 to harvest his crop, but he only gets 5 bushels (insects ate the other 5) and so he must charge $20/bushel in order to break-even. At first glance, most consumers would compare the two types of lettuce and say "There is no way I am paying $20/bushel for lettuce when I can get it for $10! That's crazy!! It's just lettuce -- how different can it be?"

But what's missing from the equation above is the "true long-term cost" of eating non-organic produce...the fact that, over time, pesticides have been proven to cause cancer. And so, if the non-organic farmer were forced to charge the "true long-term cost" for his lettuce, he would need to factor in the millions of dollars that are spent by the government each year on cancer research, he would need to add in the costs that each individual cancer patient (like me!) incurs in medical costs and emotional stress, and he would need to factor in the enormous residual impact that his pesticides have on the natural environment around his farm (e.g., in the nearby lakes and streams and in the animals who live in the area). If all of these other-- equally relevant -- costs were factored in to the price of non-organic lettuce, I am betting the cost of organic lettuce would look pretty darn cheap!! But the reality is that, as long as there are consumers who are willing to ignore the real risks associated with pesticides (and preservatives and other environmental toxins) and who are willing to gamble that the two types of lettuce really aren't that different, there will always be companies around who exploit this in the name of short-term profits.

I am sorry that I sound like I am preaching!! It's just that environmentally- and socially-responsible business is something that I have always been incredibly passionate about, but especially now that I have been affected so directly.