BEST AND WORST

I GOT MY WISH!!! When I first began growing my own food a year and 1/2 ago one of my dreams was to grow more food than I can eat so I could give food to others. That dream just came true! For more than a year I was struggling to get things to grow after learning how depleted and poisoned the soil was from a century of being pineapple lands. Adding compost and fertilizer helped a little but the plants would remain stunted. I longed for a boisterous garden. So I finally gave up and bought a truckload of soil from an organic permaculture farm near here,and after transplanting the struggling plants into the new soil, in just 3 WEEKS they were so HUGE that I couldn't eat all that was coming out every day. Anyone who knows me knows how much I can eat! My new and improved garden with plenty to share. YAHOOO! Come by and get some, organic, hand grown by me from seed.

Normally I write about what we humans are doing to the planet we live on and the creatures around us, but perhaps it is time to look at what we are doing directly to ourselves. Lately I've been reading more and more on the effects of pesticides on our amazing bodies. These bodies survive so much! As we dump poisons on the plants and soil they also are creeping into our cells, and are now linked with cancer, nervous system disorders, and hormone problems among other things. In one study I read, a particular chemical pesticide caused frogs to change gender!!!! Yikes. So what is it doing in us? In our children?

The Environmental Working Group is an independent agency that analyzes about 100,000 reports from the USDA and FDA on pesticides each year. How fun! Better them than me. They then put the info into user-friendly lists for those of us that DON'T want to read all those reports. Thank you EWG! Here are some amazing and scary tidbits: the top 12 pesticide-contaminated fruits and vegetables contain 47 to 67 different pesticides per serving. This year celery is the number 1 most contaminated, up from number 4 last year, so pesticide use is apparently not consistent.

Below are some lists of what fruits and vegetables contain the highest and lowest amounts of chemical residue. By avoiding the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables, you can apparently lower your pesticide consumption by close to 80 percent!!!! And these tests were done AFTER the produce was power-washed by the USDA, so washing does not remove all these scary things from our food. Again, YIKES! Organic looks better and better.

This first list is the top 12 most important to avoid or buy organic, in order of most pesticides to least:

Celery
Peaches
Strawberries
Apples
Blueberries
Nectarines
Sweet bell peppers
Spinach,Kale and Collard Greens
Cherries
Potatoes
Grapes
Lettuce

Now we get a friendlier list. The ones that have the LEAST amount of pesticides, starting with the best and going down from there:

Onions
Avocados
Sweet corn
Pineapples
Mango
Sweet peas
Asparagus
Kiwi fruit
Cabbage
Eggplant
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Grapefruit
Sweet potatoes
Sweet onions

So besides having compassion for the soil and water, I ask you to have compassion for your very own body, and CHANGE this onslaught of chemical poisons in your bloodstream. Better for you AND the planet. Win, win. YES!

Thanks for listening, and making new choices.