June 14 2011
Pushers of organic food love to scare moms with the "Dirty Dozen" list--the 12 fruits and vegetables that have the most pesticide residue. Now, the Huffington Post has another list to consider, the so-called "Clean Fifteen." Yes, that's right, the produce with the least pesticide residue.
Organic pushers love to cite "studies" which proport to show measurable pesticide levels in tissue samples of those who eat conventionally (non-organic) produce. But what they don't tell you is that certain levels of pesticides residue in a person's system is perfectly harmless. The mere presence of something does not make it a poison; nor does it make it harmful to the human body.
But the article starts off by advising one avoid all this list-making and to just buy organic; what better way to avoid the risk of death by pesticide overdose, right? Of course they fail to mention that while organic farmers can't use sythetic pesticides, they can use natural pesticides--nasty stuff that has been linked to tumors in rats and cell damage.
The message being promoted by these lists is that the food sold in the regular grocery store will kill you or harm your children. They want us to believe that there's just nothing safer than organic produce...just don't mention those organic bean sprout in Europe.