What's on my food?
For dinner, I ate a frozen meal from a company called,
Beetnik, which focuses on preparing all-natural and organic foods using only
simple ingredients. The meal contained the following items (please note that
the information listed here would only be applicable if the meal was not
organic):
Onions: no information
Sweet potatoes: 19 pesticidesà
reproductive toxicity, bee toxicity, neurotoxicity, carcinogenic
Carrots: 26 pesticidesà
reproductive toxicity, bee toxicity, neurotoxicity, carcinogenic
Celery: 64 pesticidesà
reproductive toxicity, bee toxicity, neurotoxicity, carcinogenic
Lemons: no information
Bell peppers: 53 pesticidesà
reproductive toxicity, bee toxicity, neurotoxicity, carcinogenic
Garlic: no information
Ginger: no information
Poultry: 0 residue
Water treated tap: 59 pesticidesà reproductive toxicity, bee
toxicity, neurotoxicity, carcinogenic
In total, I could have been exposed to 221 pesticides. Many
of these chemicals are duplicates, but nonetheless, I'd still be ingesting
these chemicals multiple times and increasing their bioaccumulation within my
body. This is crazy and highlights the importance of washing produce and
eating organic. I'd be interested in seeing a comparison list of the chemicals
found on organic ingredients, because not all organic food is completely
pesticide free.
I have really been encouraging my family to eat organic, but
as a family of four, this is significantly more expensive. For example, my
frozen dinner was double the cost of a regular frozen meal ($6.50 versus $3.25
respectively). This cost difference adds up quickly. As I learned in Harvest
for Hope, organic food may be more expensive on the front end, but will be more
cost-effective long term due to the increased health benefits it offers.
However, something needs to be done to better protect citizens as a whole. From
a public health perspective, this comes down to implementing stricter policies
that are actually enforceable. New policies are needed to foster significant
change because this issue affects everyone. See the blog post entitled Module 8.5
to find out more about what these ideal chemical policies should look like!
HI Elena,
ReplyDeleteWow it is great that you actually calculated total number of pesticides. It might be more than what you calculated since there were no informations of some foods. Yes it would be interested to find the chemicals from organic ingredients as you said. I agree with you that we need new policies that is more powerful to protect citizens.
Hey Elena,
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty ridiculous to see just how many pesticides we expose ourselves to everyday. I know for myself, that I would often look for organic meat and diary products, prior to the start of this class. I was well aware of the health risk that we can place ourselves in, if we consume non-organic meat and diary. However, through this class, I have come to appreciate the health benefits of organics produce.
Overall, I agree that organics should be made more readily available to the general public. Particularly, those populations living in "food deserts" and low-income areas should have increased access to organic foods.