In what looks to be more good news for proponents of organic agriculture, a new study reveals that many pesticides currently in wide use in the European Union could damage the brain development of fetuses and young children. 

The study, produced jointly by the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Southern Denmark, reviewed data from nearly 200 papers and reports involving pesticides and the brain from around the world.

Inexplicably, EU trials of new pesticide chemicals do not generally include assessments of brain toxicity. Given that many of these pesticides target the brain and nervous system in insects, the risk of possible damage to these same structures in humans is very real. The EU, which tightened pesticide standards earlier this year, has restrictions in place similar to those of most developed nations.

The report could spur further interest in organic agriculture practices, which by and large avoid the problems presented by chemical pesticides, sewage-sludge fertilizer, and other environmental problems posed by more traditional industrial-scale agriculture. Last month, an organic farm in California was granted a $1 million settlement against neighboring farms that accidentally contaminated its land with chemical fertilizers.