Sustainable Agriculture Literature Review - Boulder County

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Summary
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10. Human Health
Agriculture can present several risks to human health through the food supply from
management and growing practices. One of the most studied risks is the potential for the
transfer of food borne pathogens from animal wastes. When animal wastes are
concentrated in high amounts and not managed correctly, they can present significant
problems during handling, use, and disposal, posing both health and environmental
risks. A variety of different viruses can be present in animal fecal wastes and manures
and have been documented to make their way into the food supply via contaminated
crops.
It has been estimated that about 70 percent of all of the U.S. antimicrobials produced are
fed to animals to help promote growth and treat disease. This frequent use and high
volume of antimicrobials has greatly increased the development of drug resistant strains
of disease, causing several outbreaks of heavily drug resistant diseases in the human
population. The National Research Council and Institute of Medicine found that there is a
strong link between the use of antimicrobials in food animals and the development of
bacterial resistance to these drugs. Despite the demonstrated increases in bacterial
resistance due to antimicrobial use, the overall risk and frequency of incidences of such
diseases has been shown to be low.
At present, more than 800 pesticide active ingredients from a wide range of commercial
products are registered for use in agricultural operations. Pesticides have been shown,
by the Environmental Protection Agency, to negatively impact human health through
both short and long-term effects. The more serious long-term effects of pesticides can
include disruption of the body’s reproductive, immune, endocrine, and nervous systems,
as well as elevated cancer risks. The overall impact of a pesticide on human health and
the environment depends on several factors, including its behavior in the environment,
its ecotoxicity, and the amounts applied.
The National Institute of Science evaluated the likelihood for unintended health effects to
occur as a result of various methods of genetic modification. Overall, the committee
found that the process of “genetic engineering has not been shown to be inherently
dangerous, but rather, evidence to date shows that any technique, including genetic
engineering, carries the potential to result in unintended changes in the composition of
the food.” One of the major health concerns with genetically engineered food is its
potential to increase allergies in the human population through the food chain. To date,
no commercially available biotech proteins in foods have been documented to cause
allergic reactions, though a number of studies have raised concerns of potential
implications for allergic reactions or shown allergic reactions in non-commercially
available crops. Despite these studies showing the potential for allergic reactions, or
even specific cases of identified allergens, no commercially grown genetically
engineered (GE) crop has been shown to cause allergic reactions owing to a
transgenically introduced allergenic protein or a significant increase in the endogenous
allergenicity of a crop.
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