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eve
Jul 29th, 2005, 09:17 AM
I read that the Environmental Working Group in the US recently released warnings about fruit. It's a long report but the upshot was that along with govt tests, raspberries, strawberries, apples, and peaches are the foods most contaminated with pesticides. Those least contaminated are watermelon, bananas, kiwi, pineapple, corn, onions and peas.

Shane Heaton, organic food quality researcher for Biological Farmers of Australia, said the list is fairly accurate but cooking foods does degrade pesticides to some degree. Washing them does not wash away the pesticides. The grape and stone fruit grower for Sun World Australasia says that polluted rainfall could do more damage than any of the pesticides in use.

Finally, the article states that fruits & vegies protect consumers against disease regardless of whether they're organic or not - if you can, buy organic, otherwise try and avoid the worst offenders.

There's a list of the dirty dozen and a list of 12 safe-to-eat. The safest in order are sweet corn, avocados, pineapple, cauli, mangoes, peas, asparagus, onions, broccoli, bananas, kiwi, pawpaw.

The dirty dozen are peaches, strawberries, apples, spinach, nectarines, celery, pears, cherries, spuds, capsicums, raspberries, grapes. (and I just bought celery and capsiums today!)

eve
Jul 29th, 2005, 09:26 AM
I should have mentioned that the info is from the Aug/Sept issue of 'Nature & Health'.

DianeVegan
Jul 29th, 2005, 10:24 AM
These lists also appear in the May/June issue of VegNews.

It is a bit disheartening to realize that contaminated rain may actually make organic farming close to impossible. Well, at least it is better than adding even more chemicals to the food.

PinkLogik
Jul 29th, 2005, 11:24 AM
Washing them does not wash away the pesticides. The grape and stone fruit grower for Sun World Australasia says that polluted rainfall could do more damage than any of the pesticides in use.

That doesn't surprise me Eve, I would imagine that spraying pesticides onto any crop, fruit or veg would cause some level of absorption into the plants themselves.... Not good.

It's a depressing thought regarding the polluted rainfall, but again, not surprised.

It's beyond me why any farmers still continue to use pesticides, I read somewhere that it only increases crop yield by 12% - surely that's not a plausible excuse to poison the planet? :(