@grbh- Hey, you ought to choose a handle. This debate is great!
I had read that Forbes article before you had posted it. Well, part of it. I had stopped once I realized I could poke holes in just about every paragraph, but finished it once you referred to it. A few examples:
I've never heard anyone argue that organic-approved pesticides aren't toxic. If they weren't, they wouldn't be pesticides. What they are not is PERSISTENT. A good example is rotenone. It is an extract from a plant. It is very toxic, and a good gardener will use it only as a last resort. But it is unstable and breaks down in about a week due to light exposure, weathering, bacterial action, you name it. It also does not stick around in the body if residues are ingested. Conventional pesticides are often petroleum-derived and may hang around for years, retaining their toxicity as they build up in the soil. So what happens when that pesticide-laden soil blows into an adjacent forest, or runs off in a rain storm to a lake, river, or ocean? It's not just about the food you know.
Furthermore a naturally occurring chemical defense mechanism within a plant is not the same as an added pesticide. By that logic capsaicin, the chemical that makes peppers hot, is a pesticide in any form. Now if you were to take capsaicin and distill it in a lab and shoot it back onto plants at a thousand times its possible natural concentration, then yes, it would be a pesticide. But would it be persistent? As a naturally occurring, biodegradable substance, probably not.
As for the "organic must be free of GMOs" thing goes, you can thank Monsanto for that one. It's true that GM can infiltrate organics, because they are everywhere, just as persistent pesticides--and for what it's worth, pharmaceuticals-- are everywhere. If Farmer Jim is growing organic soy and Monsanto decides it wants to plant its GM soy right next to him, well that's too bad for Farmer Jim. In fact, Monsanto has the right to test his crops before they go to market and sue him for accidentally growing their trademarked product!
I will agree with you on one thing: organics are not what they used to be, or what they should be. In fact, the CEO of Eden Foods refuses to use the USDA Organic logo on his company's products for many of the reasons you describe. Seriously, go check out a box or can next time you're in the store. The marriage of Big Food with Big Pharma and Big Oil has distorted so many of our regulations on organics through special interest that it is barely recognizeable at this point. That does not, however, discredit the idea, and ideals, of organic farming. We get a lot of European vacationers in our store who often ask why our government permits such ill treatment of our population's food. Anecdotally their conventional is better than our organic in some instances!
I can understand your viewpoint, as well as that of the doctor who wrote that article, but writing off organics altogether is a mistake. I myself use both organic and conventional products, and I advise others to do the same based on their tastes. I do, however, read labels for "dirty" ingredients such as artificial preservatives. It's my firm belief that if a food can't go bad once it's been opened it wasn't food to begin with.
Also I'm an IPM guy. I raise livestock and will use medicines to save an animal if it catches an illness and can't fight it on its own or with "home remedy" treatments. I do not, however, treat prophylactically. Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control: wet weather, a cold snap, etc. Otherwise a well-cared-for animal won't need to be constantly propped up by antibiotics. When we do that we select for weakened stock, further reinforcing our need for these treatments and releasing more chemicals into the environment. Such treatment is now the industry standard. And we wonder why our drinking water is laced with pharmaceuticals.
Sorry for the animal tangent but the two are intertwined. I have more on that subject, all you need is to ask. ;)