“A farmer’s first consumer is his or her own family, so food safety is always their top priority,” says Teresa Thorne, executive director of the Alliance for Food and Farming. Industry groups say that such residue on food doesn’t pose a risk. The Environmental Protection Agency says agricultural pesticide exposure is tied to asthma, bronchitis, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Parkinson’s disease, and prostate and lung cancers. Some of the clearest evidence of harm comes from people who work with pesticides or live in agricultural areas. “Pesticides are chemicals that are specifically designed to kill living organisms,” says Devon Payne-Sturges, DrPH, an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Health in College Park. “For the lowest-scoring items, eating a half of a serving or less per day poses long-term health risks to a young child,” Vallaeys says. Even some organic products, such as fresh spinach, had worrisome pesticide residue. But about 20 percent, such as fresh green beans, peaches, and potatoes, received our worst scores those are the ones it’s most important to try to buy organic. The good news: Almost half of the nonorganic fruits and vegetables pose little risk. (See CR’s produce ratings and find out which fruits and vegetables to pick, below.) We also rated some frozen, canned, and dried items, for a total of 49 products. ![]() They were organic and nonorganic, grown in the U.S. To help consumers identify which produce poses the biggest risk from pesticides, CR experts developed ratings for 35 fruits and vegetables. ![]() And in many low-income communities, access to fruits and vegetables in general-let alone organic-may be limited. “Still, we realize organic can cost more, and that means it isn’t always an option,” Vallaeys says.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |