12 Most Contaminated Fruits And Vegetables

John Headstrong · Tue May 27, 2008 10:09 pm

http://www.healthyreader.com/2008/05/13 ... egetables/

ina · Post: # 105902Post **ina** » Wed May 28, 2008 6:40 am

Don't forget that that was done in the US - the list may be slightly different here. (For example - what are "imported grapes" in the US? Imported from where?)

Rachel Squires · Wed May 28, 2008 3:34 pm

I saw a documentary once about how they grow bananas and the pesticides they use. It was really very frightening. Haven't bought a banana that wasn't organic since. Exactly what are we prepared to sacrifice for aesthetic perfection and 'throw away' prices in our food?

Mare Owner · Sat Jun 07, 2008 1:29 am

ina wrote:Don't forget that that was done in the US - the list may be slightly different here. (For example - what are "imported grapes" in the US? Imported from where?)

Imported from South America. The grapes we see in the stores in winter all all from Chile.

The article also lists the "least contaminated." But how contaminated are those compared to organic? Yikes, the things we don't know about our food.

MINESAPINT · Sat Jun 07, 2008 7:00 am

This post is very timely as I have just had an extremely poor night due to eating bought potatoes.

I grow my own organic potatoes but have just run out of last years and the next crop will not be ready for weeks. Yesterday I bought some potatoes and ate them with a salad last night. During the night I could not sleep and got the "jitters" if you understand what I mean. This has happened several times before and has been put down to bought potatoes every time.

Buying organic might be the solution but I am afraid I do not trust the supply chain. Anyway I understand organic farmers are allowed to use a range of chemicals. To me organic should mean organic.

The Riff-Raff Element · Sat Jun 07, 2008 7:18 am

MINESAPINT wrote:
Buying organic might be the solution but I am afraid I do not trust the supply chain. Anyway I understand organic farmers are allowed to use a range of chemicals. To me organic should mean organic.

Ah, well, when "organic" meant slightly soiled veg bought by somewhat otherworldly types (SOTs) with beards and / or long hair in tiny quantities from smallholders, organic really did mean organic. Then it became big business, the supermarkets saw money in it but "had" to find some way to cut costs in order to make a "fair" profit. So organic rather stopped being organic and became something not quite so.

Now us SOTs have to grow our own. Which is more fun anyway.

ina · Post: # 107847Post **ina** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 9:45 am

Mare Owner wrote: Imported from South America. The grapes we see in the stores in winter all all from Chile.

Cheers. See, imported here would normally mean somewhere like France... And when I was in France (working on an organic dairy goat farm), the neighbour quite happily sprayed the grapes in one row while they were picking them in the next, and without giving my boss a chance to get out of the way with her baby... Haven't bought any non-organic grapes since then, either!

As for organic: please, please stop spreading that "organic farmers use chemicals, too"...
A) everything is a chemical, natural or not. B) the few "proper" chemicals organic farmers are allowed to use are only allowed after special license from the certifying body, once everything else has failed (copper against blight, for example - and that's being phased out, too). So they use them very, very rarely. C) Don't buy from the supermarket - buy on the farmer's market, or direct from the farmer. I don't like the supermarket stuff because that comes from huge farms, growing more or less monocultures, and they are more likely to ask for (and be granted) derogation from their certifying bodies - because often they are in it for the money, and don't really care about organic values. (I've met a few of them.

) To me, they are not "proper" organic farms anyway... (Oh, I like this word "proper"

)

AXJ · Post: # 107897Post **AXJ** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 1:58 pm

Yeah, I hear that the Sainsbury's taste the difference range is hydroponic and grown under lights, how funny is that? About as environmentally friendly as a car show room!

ina · Post: # 107906Post **ina** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 4:34 pm

Even if it's grown outside... I once visited the farmer (up here in Scotland) who grows ALL the organic carrots for T***o UK. You can't really see the end of the fields. And his attitude is - so we can't spray our normal stuff - what can we spray instead? "Proper"

organic farmers would go for smaller units, do companion planting, netting, etc etc. Lots of things you can do before you reach for the sprayer.

Michelle · Sat Jun 14, 2008 10:19 pm

MINESAPINT wrote:This post is very timely as I have just had an extremely poor night due to eating bought potatoes.

I grow my own organic potatoes but have just run out of last years and the next crop will not be ready for weeks. Yesterday I bought some potatoes and ate them with a salad last night. During the night I could not sleep and got the "jitters" if you understand what I mean. This has happened several times before and has been put down to bought potatoes every time.

Buying organic might be the solution but I am afraid I do not trust the supply chain. Anyway I understand organic farmers are allowed to use a range of chemicals. To me organic should mean organic.

I am the same but mainly with meat. Non organic makes me really sick - but so does T*sco and sainsbury's organic. Strangely, organic from other supermarkets / butchers is ok. Who can you trust? Certainly not T*sco:
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 843264.ece