To the editor:

In your recent article about organic produce (Jan. 20), Sharon Dobesh, pesticide and integrated pest management coordinator for K-State Research and Extension, says that one of the ways to decide whether or not to buy organic produce, “depends on how the consumer handles it when they get home. Are they good about washing produce – or do they just cut it up and use it?” This quote implies that the only thing we have to concern ourselves with is whether or not we ingest the pesticide.

This seems a narrow and anthropocentric perspective to me. While washing the pesticide off nonorganic fruit or vegetables certainly decreases the amount of toxin that goes directly into us, it still adds poison to the water table and, thereby, affects other life forms who rely on water to survive, which is all of us. Organic is not just about what is going into our mouths.

Randi Hacker,

Lawrence