I’m too much of a skeptic I guess. Of course I understand the value of organic farming–healthier due to no pesticides, etc.–I just don’t have much confidence in most businesspeople who tout organic food. Anyone wanting to increase profits could slap an “organic” label on food grown with pesticides, greatly increase the price, and laugh all the way to the bank.
As long as the consumer knows how to identify organic food–that organic food isn’t going to look as pretty as food grown with pesticides (holes in leaves, etc)–then the consumer can protect him/herself from unscrupulous wholesalers/retailers.
Don’t you think the McDougal’s movie is a bit contrived? Gads, let people chooose! It’s communism otherwise, itn’t it? I choose not to go to Mickey D’s and IF I go to another fast food place, I eat whatever I want which doesn’t include fries of any size and does include a salad. What’s the big deal if I don’t do it every day? People should be busier with something if all they have to do is make stupid movies or…watch them.
*ducks behind desk from the ‘slings and arrows’ of outrageous people pissed off’
Cheers. It just might be that tomorrow morning I have donuts, one of the few fried foods I think about occasionally and eat maybe 3 times a year.
Actually in America most people just eat their fruits and vegetables. I guess they don’t realize that they shouldn’t be eating the skins on the fruits or vegies becuase of the high pesticide rate. Unless you want vegetables and fruits with all kinds of bug holes all over your food. That’s WHY we’re using them.
Hey Sandman, just what kind of chemicals have you ingested and where can I find them?
The chemicals also penetrate the skin of the fruits…and unfortunately, the chemicals dont know when to stop wreaking havoc, and they damage organisms all the way up the food chain.
Some people make sure to eat the skins because that is where most of the vitamins and other nutrients are. I know I do… I just make sure I thoroughly wash fruits before I eat them.
That’s a myth so that crappy restaurants can make money by selling you potato peelings, etc. There’s now a generation of chumps who believe that ‘potato wedges’ are fit for human consumption…
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]Uhm… you know they use radiation to treat apples in the US right? It makes them last longer and look nicer…
There’s so much crap in the food anyhow[/quote]
Radiation doesn’t make food radioactive any more than heating food makes it heat-generating. What exactly worries you about this?
[quote=“Xiaoma”][quote=“TheLostSwede”]Uhm… you know they use radiation to treat apples in the US right? It makes them last longer and look nicer…
There’s so much crap in the food anyhow[/quote]
Radiation doesn’t make food radioactive any more than heating food makes it heat-generating. What exactly worries you about this?[/quote]
physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae636.cfm
My worry is there are no studies on the long term impact of this method on health, as it alters food in some unknown ways. It’s like GM, that there is no proof it’s harmful doesn’t mean it’s harmless.
Can’t be worse than the west
As for the advice of soaking fruits in water to “wash pesticides”, a good analogy would be the people wearing masks on scooters here. It’s maybe not useless, but definitely not efficient.
Does anyone have any reliable, up to date information on this issue (pesticides/healthful produce)? It’s been over 3 years since this topic was started and it’s obviously important - esp for someone like me who has immunity problems etc and eats a very great deal of produce. We do buy a lot of imported stuff as a matter of course - eating what we like and have at home etc, but I would appreciate knowing the current situation and also which items tend to be only locally grown and most ‘at risk’.
I’m not sure about the pesticide content and how it matches up but at least fruit and veg in Taiwan are very fresh and therefore should be more nutritious than imported produce or the type of food you would be buying through massive distributor networks in the US. I know the rice farmers use a type of local bitter tea oil to kill some of the Thai snails and other bugs that would eat their crops and that is an organic method. Of course they use other chemical pesticides too…
Mmm, yeah, sounds reasonable. I think the concern seems to be, not that chemicals are used at all, but the sheer quantity of them seems to far outrun foreign usage (at least that’s what I understood from scanning this thread). I’m not really able to think about buying much organic produce, if any, so I would like to know what the current state of affairs is re ‘regular’ produce and which organic suppliers are known to be reputable. For instance, I know that leaf foods are heavily sprayed and also absorb large amounts of chemicals, so I may be interested in looking our reliable clean(er) suppliers.
Well, no-one could give a reliable update here, so I asked my Chinese teacher (who seems to pride herself on knowing more or less everything!!! ). She mentioned that government check ups on these very toxic farms had been instituted and spot checks are now made on growers. She also mentioned to very true point that, after the initial horror story has been spread around, you rarely hear any updates! Also, people just LOVE to tell and spread horror stories, don’t they? When do you hear an urgent report on something good? But we’re always hearing scare stories and, frankly, I’ve learned to be very circumspect indeed when it comes to what I actually believe.
So, the story is very probably that things have improved and that it’s best to wash all produce throroughly in running water, do not soak them and certainly do not soak them in salted water, which reacts with the chemicals in the pesticides causing them to stick tighter to the produce. I actually wash some fruit off in washing up liquid (rinsing well afterwards) to get the visible gunk off!
Also, there are now established standards for organic farming and so produce which has some sort of standard marking on it, be it a TW or an overseas one, should be reliably organic.
Hope that’s in some way useful and, if anyone knows any further scare stories, please check them thoroughly before passing them on.
I think the level of paranoia has far outstripped the reality of the situation. Pesticides were too heavily used in the past, but awareness has changed that to a good degree, I believe (sorry, I don’t have figures, but neither do many posting here). The . growth of organic farming is a GOOD sign – it is an expression of this awareness. And, yes, I also agree with the concern that we ought to be skeptical about the “organic” label – some unscrupulous people will exploit it dishonestly – but neither do I believe most organic growers/merchants are liars.
Wash your food carefully along the line Bao Lisha suggests and enjoy your fresh fruit and veggies. For most of us the real concern ought to be the health benefits from eating properly rather than obsessing – without good cause – over the chemicals in our foods.
If anyone finds good info on this topic, it seems many would like to know about it.
Something I’ve wondered about, don’t many farmers cover fruits like bananas and mangoes individually in little bags to prevent bugs getting to them? I’ve seen it many times down south and thought these fruits must have a lower pesticide index?
I’ve seen that too and took it as a positive sign. Still it doesn’t stop the plant absorbing pesticides in other areas but should reduce the overall impact and need for spraying. Go organic, there are plenty of good organic suppliers in Taiwan!
Taiwan blocked the third shipment of US cherries in two weeks because of high levels of pesticides, the official Central News Agency reported, citing the Department of Health. The cargo was found to have 0.92 part per million of fenpropathrin, exceeding the 0.4 ppm limit, the agency reported.
). She mentioned that government check ups on these very toxic farms had been instituted and spot checks are now made on growers. She also mentioned to very true point that, after the initial horror story has been spread around, you rarely hear any updates! Also, people just LOVE to tell and spread horror stories, don’t they? When do you hear an urgent report on something good? But we’re always hearing scare stories and, frankly, I’ve learned to be very circumspect indeed when it comes to what I actually believe.