this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
67 points (92.4% liked)
Science
13206 readers
7 users here now
Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
There's already been issues like this in using copper sulfate (which is inorganic in terms of molecular structure and persistent as an element like you mention, but labeled as organic in some jurisdictions in terms of agricultural treatments and food marketing) as a fungicide. It's a very short lived fungicide for leaf borne fungal diseases, meaning it must be present on the leaf to prevent infection (it is easily washed away by rain or errant irrigation) and applied repeatedly, but is long lived in the soil meaning it can build up and kill off mycorrhizae and other beneficial soil fungus causing longer term drops in yield.
So, yeah, your worry is valid. And, that's just one example.