What about the pesticides?

I read everyday about the debate between eating organically grown food and non- organically grown food.  This debate will never end.  Big industrial agriculture is not going to let go of their control of a 100 billion dollar market.  The money is too big.  Imagine controlling what people eat down to what seeds are planted to how the end product is manufactured and marketed.  That is a lot of control. Most studies are influenced by big money. Someone writes those grants.

I have different questions.

Lets say and I don’t believe it is true, but lets say that there is no difference between and an apple grown organically or with an apple grown with the use of pesticides, no nutritional difference.  Same nutritional value. But what about the pesticides. Apples are one of the highest tested fruits for pesticide residue – 94.1% test positive for pesticide residue and 82.3% have tested positive for having two or more pesticide residues found. This one category, just apples.

I have learned that by avoiding the top twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead you can lower your exposure to pesticides by almost 80%. If you want to expose your family to about 10 pesticides per day, on average, then eat these 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables. Of course eating organic foods eliminates the concern about pesticides.

THE DIRTY DOZEN

• Nectarines – 97.3 % positive for pesticides, the highest tested. Next came peaches (96.7%) then apples (94.1%)
• The highest likelihood of multiple pesticides on a single sample award goes to peaches with 87% of this fruit having two or more pesticide residue found. Nectarines and apples came in next with 85.3 and 82.3% in that order.
• Peaches and apples had the most pesticides detected on a single sample, with nine pesticides on a single sample, followed by strawberries and imported grapes where eight pesticides were found on a single sample of each fruit.
• Peaches had the most pesticides overall, with some combination of up to 53 pesticides found on the samples tested, followed by apples with 50 pesticides and strawberries with 38.

Wow, again. What can I say, but there is more. When the EWG looked at vegetables the studies showed that sweet bell peppers, celery, kale, lettuce,and carrots are the vegetables most likely to expose consumer to pesticides.

• Celery had the highest of percentage of samples test positive for pesticides (94.1 percent), followed by sweet bell peppers (81.5 percent) and carrots (82.3 percent).
• Celery also had the highest likelihood of multiple pesticides on a single vegetable (79.8 percent of samples), followed by sweet bell peppers (62.2 percent) and kale (53.1 percent).
• Sweet bell peppers had the most pesticides detected on a single sample (11 found on one sample), followed by kale (10 found on one sample), then lettuce and celery (both with nine).
• Sweet bell peppers were the vegetable with the most pesticides overall, with 64, followed by lettuce with 57 and carrots with 40.

THE CLEAN FIFTEEN

If you can not eat organic fruits and vegetables EWG suggest that you select fruits and vegetables that are likely to have less exposure to pesticides. They are onions, sweet corn, asparagus, sweet peas, cabbage, eggplant, broccoli, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes.

• Over half of the tomatoes (53.1 percent), broccoli (65.2 percent), eggplant (75.4 percent), cabbage (82.1 percent), and sweet pea (77.1 percent) samples had no detectable pesticides. Among the other three vegetables on the least-contaminated list (asparagus, sweet corn, and onions), there were no detectable residues on 90 percent or more of the samples.
• Multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on any of these least contaminated vegetables. Tomatoes had the highest likelihood, with a 13.5 percent chance of more than one pesticide when ready to eat. Onions and corn both had the lowest chance with zero samples containing more than one pesticide.
• The greatest number of pesticides detected on a single sample of any of these low-pesticide vegetables was five (as compared to 11 found on sweet bell peppers, the vegetable with the most residues on a single sample).
• Broccoli had the most pesticides found on a single type of vegetable, with up to 28 pesticides, but far fewer than the most contaminated vegetable, sweet bell peppers, on which 64 were found.

The fruits least likely to have pesticide residues on them are avocados, pineapples, mangoes, kiwi, papayas, watermelon and grapefruit.

• Fewer than 10 percent of pineapple, mango, and avocado samples had detectable pesticides on them, and fewer than one percent of samples had more than one pesticide residue.
• Though 54.5 percent of grapefruit had detectable pesticides, multiple residues are less common, with only 17.5 percent of samples containing more than one residue. Watermelon had residues on 28.1 percent of samples, and just 9.6 percent had multiple pesticide residues.

The list goes on. If you want to view more here is a link.

So, we have residue. You can wash your fruits and vegetables. That is a pretty good idea even for organically grown produce. But where does the pesticides go? Well, the pesticides and herbicides sprayed on crops, when washed off, weather in a sink or a field, find their way back. They’re like homing pigeons, they keep returning. They are in our drinking water, our bath water and in our morning coffee. The point I am trying to make is not all pesticides break down. More than 700 synthetic organic compounds have been identified in various U.S. drinking water supplies.

Imagine if you could reduce pesticides in rivers, streams and our lakes and oceans simply by choosing organically grown foods. It would help. Your choice, organically grown foods over industrial farmed foods, is the single most direct way to contribute to a healthier planet. When we shop we are voting with our purchase.  We vote with every dollar and our purchases are being watched.