I recently read an article published in The Badger Herald describing how small amounts of hormones we ingest make a large impact on the sex of fish in Lake Mendota. The article put me in mind of a recent lecture I attended by Warren Porter about how pesticides have negative effects on my body.

I wondered what it would be like to stop three times to catch my breath while walking up Bascom Hill or not remembering what I had done 30 minutes ago. This is what appears to be happening to Mexican children in the Yaqui Valley, the same Yaqui Valley that exports many of the fruits and vegetables we eat.

Because many pesticides banned in the United States are not banned in Mexico, better-looking fruits and vegetables can be produced much more cheaply there. How many of you know where your food comes from and the damaging effects that could be forced onto thousands of children?

Dr. Elizabeth Guillette, of the University of Tuscon, spearheaded research regarding the damaging effects pesticide application has on the children of the Yaqui Valley. The study examined groups of children with the same ethnic background, cultural traditions, and standard of living. In the late 1940s, the Yaqui Valley became a thriving agricultural economy due to the availability of pesticides and better irrigation techniques, exporting many of the fruits and vegetables produced to the United States.

Many Yaqui people opposed this change and decided to move up into the foothills to become ranchers. With this move, they escaped the pesticide exposure that the valley people did not.

In the study, children between the ages of four and five years old were asked to jump up and down in place for as long as they could before stopping. The foothills children were far superior, with their best jumper lasting for three times as long as the best valley child. The children were also tested for short-term memory. The children were shown a red balloon and told they would receive it after the 30-minute exercise was finished. At the end of the exercise, nearly 60 percent of the foothill children remembered both the object and the color, as opposed to 27 percent of the valley children.

The most shocking evidence was when the children were asked to draw a person. Drawings by two of the four-year-old children are shown below. Professor Porter stated how their unrecognizable drawings showed the children would never be able to form trusting relationships with other people.

What is happening to our bodies as we ingest fruits and vegetables that have been produced in a pesticide-covered field? I am not saying that eating one apple is going to be fatal, but what about the small amounts we ingest every day? All of these small amounts could be damaging our bodies.

So what can you do? Start small: try going to one of the local co-ops and trying local organic produce. Get more interested in where your food comes from. Wisconsin is one of the leading states in the country for CSA (community-supported agriculture) farms. Try getting involved with one. Small changes by each of us can make have a big effect.

Mike Dobling ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in environmental engineering.