The Environmental Working Group has put out a list of fruits and vegetables called the “Dirty Dozen” that have the highest levels if pesticide residue. They are trying to scare you into buying organic products.

As always, a group dedicated to saving the environment will not only cost you more money if you listen to them, but they will hurt the environment.

How did I get there?

According to Sam Vance (who has a food science degree from Ohio State),  you would have to eat 133,951 servings of celery per day for the pesticide residue to harm you…and that is the worst case scenario. The other items on the list are a slightly more dangerous, but that’s a pretty low hurdle.

Organic foods are more expensive than the mass distributed alternatives. (Aren’t all foods organic?) So I think it is safe to say that avoiding these trace toxins will cost you more money…but hurt the environment?

Yes, it would hurt the environment if everyone switched to Organic foods. For one, organic farms get far less yield per acre than traditional farms. Less yield means more land is required to grow the same amount of food. In addition to the extra land use is the extra fuel required to grow it. It takes more diesel to plow more land, and for all you global warming nuts…more waste means more methane. Methane contributes far more to global warming than does the non-pollutant carbon dioxide.

So if traces of pesticides worry you, feel free to buy organic foods, but spare me the lecture on how you are saving the Earth.

 

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