Some Chemicals don’t wash off.
It is a commonly held belief that if you wash your vegetables before you eat them that you can wash the pesticides off. You might want to rethink this. Systemic Pesticides are chemicals that are absorbed by the plant. They do not wash off, they are in the tissues of the plant. These veggies include tomatoes, leafy greens, corn, fruit crops, seeds treated with pesticides, sugar beets, potatoes and cucumbers. Not only do these pesticides present a hazard to humans but they also are a hazard to bees. When bees encounter plants grown from neonicotinoid-coated seeds, they die within a few minutes.
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Research published in the June issue of Health Day News and conducted by Texas A&M College of Medical Health Sciences suggests a link between organophosphate pesticides and ADHD in school aged children. This is the pesticide found on berries and vegetables. The list of food most effected by pesticides are: apples, peaches, blueberries and celery. The study was conducted on 1,100 American Children from the age of 8 to 15. “Children with high levels of pesticide in their urine were more likely to have ADHD. ”
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Washington State Department of Agriculture has approved harmful herbicides for use in the Organic category. Clopyralid and it’s cousin Aminopyralid are potent broad leaf herbicides that have been banned and then reintroduced in areas around the world. For example, these herbicides are used on cattle feed crops. The cattle ingest these herbicides and the manure is sold to gardeners. This is particularly troublesome when the cattle and feed is listed as organic. Organic farmers and gardeners then trust the manure to be organic. Farmers and gardeners are experiencing crop failure that is being blamed on the use of manure from feed crops that have been treated with these herbicides.
In the parts per billion these herbicides make bean plants look like melted candles and devastates tomato crops. Not only are these herbicides damaging crops but they also show up in milk and meat. The organization Growing Washington as well as Washington State University is active in facing this problem. If you have any input in this regard you can contact:
This is just one of the many reasons that we are passionate about our garden. We not only want our kids to eat safe and healthy food in the summer, but we want them to eat well in the winter as well. It is simpler than you would think to store food and to raise at least your healthy greens for the winter. Check out the Winter Gardening Guide ebook to learn how to raise your winter salads.
The Winter Gardening Guide