Is Rocket Fuel Making Truly Organic Farming Impossible?

Perchlorate and the Post-Organic Era

Perchlorate is an environmental pollutant primarily associated with releases by defense contractors, military operations and aerospace programs, as it is a key ingredient in rocket fuel. It is now found in virtually all humans tested, and it is continually making its way up the food chain through ground and drinking water, into feed and edible plants, animals products, milk and breast milk – contaminating conventional and organically grown food, alike.

It is now distributed widely throughout North America, as depicted by the image below:

The Colorado River is so thoroughly contaminated with perchlorate (1.5-8 micrograms per Liter) that 90% of the lettuce consumed during the winter months in the United States produced in the Lower Colorado River region contains this powerful endocrine disruptor.

What does it do? Perchlorate has been used as a “medicine” in this country to “treat” hyperthyroidism since the 1950’s despite the fact some patients may develop aplastic anemia (bone marrow destruction) as a result. Perchlorate interferes with iodide uptake at the sodium-iodide symporter in the thyroid gland which unfortunately has a 30-fold higher affinity for perchlorate than iodide. Without adequate iodide hypothyroidism ensues. Could this pollutant have anything to do with the geometric expansion of hypothyroidism diagnoses in this country?

6 studies on perchlorate/hypothyroidism link

If it were not for the perfect fit between pharmaceutical medicine, e.g. Synthroid (synthetic levothyroxine sodium) and pollution-caused hypothyroidism, this question might get some traction in the medical community and we could start solving the underlying problem: a medical system whose financial health depends on the continued expansion of disease within the population it serves.

Has Perchlorate Destroyed the Very Meaning of Organic?

In 2005 the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology published a study on perchlorate levels in North America. They found:

Conventionally and organically produced lettuce and other leafy vegetable samples were collected from production fields and farmers’ markets in the central and coastal valleys of California, New Mexico, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Quebec, and New Jersey. Results show that 16% of the conventionally produced samples and 32% of the organically produced samples had quantifiable levels of perchlorate using ion chromatography. Estimated perchlorate exposure from organically produced leafy vegetables was approximately 2 times that of conventional produce…”