McDonald's aims for a low-pesticide potato for its french fries

(Photo: Kici / Wikimedia Commons)

"You want fries with that?" It's safe to say that most of the 47 million customers that McDonald's serves every day answer "Yes."

But those customers, it's safe to say, did not know they were ordering up pesticides with that, too.

McDonald's, the largest fast-food chain in the world and the largest buyer of potatoes in the United States, is under pressure from shareholders to do something about pesticide use on the potatoes it buys.

To avoid a shareholder resolution on the subject, McDonald's has agreed to a survey that will determine its potato producers' pesticide practices and recommend those best practices to its global suppliers. It's too early to say whether there would be any impact on price. There wouldn't be any change in taste; a potato is a potato.

Potatoes have been on or near the list of the Environmental Working Group's dirty dozen foods with the most pesticide residue for years. That means, according to a government analysis, that after a typical person buys a typical potato and prepares it in a typical way, it's among the fruits and vegetables most likely to be laced with pesticides. (The government regulates pesticide residue, so any chemical left on food is deemed to pose no health risk; that said, pesticides are designed to kill something -- a bug, worm, fungus, or weed -- and most people don't like the idea of taking each meal with a little drop of poison.)

The spud is the No. 1 most popular veggie in the U.S. The average American eats 130 pounds of potatoes every year -- that's 44% more than the next veggie on the list, the tomato (also sometimes included on the annual Dirty Dozen list). Potatoes are the largest vegetable crop in the U.S. About 50% of the U.S. potato crop goes to French fries, potato chips, and other potato products.

The bigger concern with pesticide use, typically, is the health of farm workers, farm soils, and the wildlife and people living on or near farms. Potatoes use more pounds of pesticides per acre than most crops, according to Beyond Pesticides:"Most of these pesticides are linked to serious chronic effects such as cancer, endocrine disruption, and reproductive/developmental effects." 

(Could it be, as some recent research suggests, that pesticides cause diabetes, and not the fat those French fries are sizzled in?)

All that said, potatoes are quite nutritious. If you're in the market for a good dose of potassium or vitamin B6 potatoes are for you. Potatoes could even be considered a superfood.

If you want to avoid pesticide residue, choose USDA certified-organic potatoes, which are not grown using chemical pesticides or fertilizers.

Maybe McDonald's will opt for organic, too.

Reprinted with permission of Hearst Communications, Inc

More from The Daily Green

• The Dirty Dozen: 12 Foods to Eat Organic
• The Clean 15: Foods With Low Pesticide Residue
• What's Your Organic Food IQ? Take the Quiz!
• The Real Food Diet: Superfoods for a Health Boost
• Ways to Save Money on Organic Foods