ECOnscious: The Shoppers Guide to Pesticides

You are what you eat but do you know what you’re eating? An Environmental Working Group study has shown that people can lower their pesticide exposure by almost 80 per cent by avoiding the top 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables that expose people to about 10 pesticides per day on average.

The Pest Test
The Shoppers Guide to Pesticides ranks pesticide contamination for 47 popular fruits and vegetables based on an analysis of 87,000 tests for pesticides on these foods, conducted from 2000 to 2007 by the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. Nearly all the studies used to create the list tested produce after it had been rinsed or peeled.

Contamination was measured in six different ways and crops were ranked based on a composite score from all categories: percentage of samples tested with detectable pesticides; percentage of samples with two or more pesticides;
average number of pesticides found on a sample; average level in parts per million of all pesticides found; maximum number of pesticides found on a single sample and the number of pesticides found in total.

Rankings from the worst (peaches with 100 per cent pesticide load) to best (onions with 1 per cent pesticide load) fruits and veggies:  peach, apple, sweet bell pepper, celery, nectarine, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, grapes, carrot, pear, collared greens, spinach, potato, green beans, summer squash, capsicum, cucumber, raspberries, plum, orange, cauliflower, tangerine, mushrooms, bananas, winter squash, rock melon, cranberries, honeydew melon, grapefruit, sweet potato, tomatoes, broccoli, watermelon, papaya, eggplant, cabbage, kiwi, sweet peas, asparagus, mango, pineapple, corn, avocado, onion.

Ignorance does not equal safety
Pesticides can cause adverse effects ranging from cancer to nervous system damage and reproductive effects. There is a significant degree of uncertainty about the health effects of pesticide mixtures.
Pesticides are unique among the chemicals we release into the environment; they have inherent toxicity because they are designed to kill living organisms, insects, plants and fungi that are considered ‘pests’. Because they are toxic by design, many pesticides pose health risks that have been acknowledged by independent research analysts and physicians across the world.

Even in the face of a growing body of evidence, pesticide manufacturers continue to defend their products claiming that the amounts of pesticides produced are not sufficient to elicit safety concerns but such statements are often made in the absence of actual data.

Children are especially at risk as exposure to pesticides and other toxic chemicals during critical periods of development can have lasting adverse effects, both in early development and later in life.

Say It Don’t Spray It
People have a right to know what’s in their food so they can choose foods with fewer pesticides. The government can and should take steps to dramatically reduce toxic chemicals, including pesticides, in the food supply.
We can opt for food safety by buying organically grown fruits and vegetables or growing our own. Look for certification.

By creating demand for organically grown food, free from chemicals, we can send a message about our priorities to food growers and our Government.