Sir, - Microbiological safety is by far the most important food-related public health issue. Microbes (e.g. salmonella, listeria, E. coli, etc.) are no respecters of whether or not food has been organicallygrown. The Food Safety Authority records more than 1,000 cases of (microbiological) food contamination annually, causing illness in many cases.
By contrast, pesticide residues in our foods (monitored by the Department of Agriculture) rarely exceed prescribed limits, and such limits are set some orders of magnitude below what could be considered harmful. Most of the persistent or heavy-metal based pesticides have been withdrawn from agriculture (with the peculiar exception of the copper-based sprays still used by "organic" potato growers).
So is it worth paying an extra (say) 30 per cent "organic premium" for your groceries over a lifetime to insure against the remote possibility of being affected by pesticide residues? - Yours, etc.,
Con O'Rourke, Park Lane, Sandymount, Dublin 4.