Some fresh, frozen and canned nonorganic fruits and vegetables are contaminated with concerning levels of pesticides, according to an investigation by Consumer Reports, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that provides product reviews and ratings for its subscribers.
Some of the highest levels of pesticides were found in produce imported into the United States, according to the report released Thursday. Sixty-five of 100 samples of the most contaminated produce were imported, with 52 of those samples originating from Mexico.
The majority of the highly contaminated imports were strawberries, typically the frozen variety, the report said. Because they grow low to the ground and are therefore more accessible to bugs, strawberries often top lists of foods contaminated with insecticides.
Imported and domestic green beans also tested high for pesticides, even samples that were labeled organic, “the only organic food we found with significant levels of pesticides,” said James Rogers, director of food safety research and testing at Consumer Reports.
Not a single mention of which brands or companies are the offenders, even on the “dirty dozen” lists.
The takeaway is organic is the way to go, independent of brand
Conventional are just loaded with all manner of toxic crap
Except that there’s really no official “organic” oversight and much of that is imported from countries that have the same lax regulations… So good luck.
At this point, I try to buy from local or american growers who aren’t importing and lean into Costco (no plug - just experience) which seems to do very well about sourcing and their vendors do not want to run astray of losing that business. The problem is that it’s still hard to avoid, organic or not. Wash your food!
No way that if you have your food produced in countries with lax or non existent health and agri regulations your food will contain pesticides… it is almost as if all the rules and regulations in our own countries are there because we learned the hard way…we have seen it all:
- Excessive pesticides on food
- Excessive hormones in meat
- Toxic packaging materials
- Non food additives
- Addictive additives
- produced using child and/or slave labor
Couldn’t we do raised beds and bug nets to help reduce some of the pesticides needed? Perhaps it doesn’t work at scale, but surely there’s gotta be alternatives to spraying like… deadly toxins all over every fruit and vegetable and root vegetable we eat.
What you’re describing takes away from profits so there’s no way they’ll try that when for a cheaper option they can just like… spray deadly toxins on it instead
