President’s Choice Pear Juice Recalled

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Loblaw’s Inc. is voluntarilly recalling two types of pear juice that may have been laced with arsenic. They were distributed nationally, including here in Winnipeg.

The products are:
* President’s Choice Organics Pear Juice from Concentrate for Toddlers (UPC: 0 60383 70935 8; 1 liter size)
* All Beech Nut Pear Juice from concentrate with Vitamin C added (Codes: 0 523842 8 128 mL 2009 FE 02; A0384B0935)

The juice is supposed to be organic, which brings into question how the arsenic got into the juice in the first place. (The arsenic was found in very small quantities, but because the juice was for children a recall was advised.) Arsenic is commonly found in pesticides, and can remain in the soil for years.

So let’s get the straight. Consumers were paying extra to get organic fruit juice, but (possibly) because the soil that the fruit was grown on used to be treated with pesticides, the juice is now contaminated with arsenic? Why bother paying the premium for organic produce, if this is the case?

I’m not trying to be alarmist here, but think about it: if you’re paying extra for food that was produced in a specific way, wouldn’t you expect it to be true? Consumers are flocking to the organic label based on these promises: no pesticides, no herbicides, and no artifical fertilizers. Who tests their food to see if how true the promise is?

Michael Pollan has written at length about the Organic-Industrial Complex. (It also takes up a section in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemmna, which I highly recommend.) He calls it “supermarket pastoral.” You buy organic milk with the picture of the happy cow on the front. Do you think the milk comes from that smiling cow? Or is the cow living on in a feedlot with hundreds of other cows? How long did it take to get the US government to take action on Aurora Organic Dairy?

This is just one of the reasons that I tend to select local over organic foods. (Even then, though, there are tripping points: “Product of Canada” does not mean the same as “Packaged in Canada,” and why I would totally support a country of origin label law like the States’ new COOL law. Canada shouldn’t be complaining about the US implementing this law - they should be emulating them. But that’s an entry for another day.)

Anyway, check your fridges and cupboards for the recalled juices… And keep a skeptical mind when buying organic. “Organic” doesn’t always magically mean “safe.”

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