Friday, June 4, 2010

Friday's Food for Thought: Is Organic Really Necessary?

From Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, page 369, by Sally Fallon:

"Strawberries lead the list of the thirteen most contaminated fruits and vegetables sold in American supermarkets.  According to a 1993 Environmental Working Group study, on some farms strawberries are sprayed with 500 pounds of pesticides per acre.

Red and green bell peppers come next, which are high in neurotoxic residues.  Other highly contaminated foods include spinach, cherries, peaches, Mexican cantaloupe, celery, apples, apricots, green beans, Chilean grapes and cucumbers.

Fruits and vegetables from foreign countries are subject to even less stringent regulations than domestic varieties.  Imported bananas, for example, often are treated with benomyl (linked with birth defects) and chlorpyrifos (a neurotoxin.)

Among grains, rice and oats were found to be the most contaminated.

The solution?  Buy organic, especially when it comes to the popular fruits and vegetables listed above.  Even better, buy biodynamic, which is an all - natural farming technique...biodynamic crops are nourished with naturally composted manure from cows allowed to graze freely."

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