The Produce Without The Poison: How to Avoid Pesticides

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How to Remove Pesticides from Food

 

Pesticide-Free Hints

 

The Produce Without The Poison: How to Avoid

Pesticides

 

Cantaloupe: Pop's got the ladder.

(Mr. Hughes, my high school English teacher.)

 

Real-world people shop at supermarkets, and real-world

affordable fruits and vegetables contain pesticide

residues. Not everybody can buy organic; not

everybody is a gardener. Here are easy and effective

ways to reduce your chemical consumption.

 

Rule number one: Wash your fruits like you wash your

hands: " Use soap, Jimmy! " Mom and Dad were right:

just running your mitts or your munchies under tap

water does little to remove oily grime. Agricultural

pesticides do not come off in water, either. If they

did, farmers would have to apply them after each rain

or even a heavy dew. That would be both

labor-intensive and expensive. So petrochemical

companies make pesticides with chemical " stickers "

that are insoluble in water. They do their job and

stay on the fruit, rain or shine.

 

Soap, or detergent, is more effective in removing

pesticide residues than you think. You can prove this

for yourself. Take a big bunch of red or green

grapes, and place them, with a squirt of dishwashing

detergent, in a large bowl or pan of water. Mix the

detergent in thoroughly, and swish the grapes around

for a minute. Carefully watch the water. You will

see evidence that detergent works. If you do not

think that that stuff is pesticide residue, try

another bowl of grapes in water without detergent, and

try another bowl of organically-grown grapes in water

with detergent. Seein' is believin.'

 

It is necessary to rinse detergent-washed fruits

before eating, of course, but that is hardly a burden.

Rinse until the water is clear. When you handle the

detergent-washed fruit, you will also notice that it

feels different, too. We are so used to fruit with

chemical coatings on it that when we touch truly clean

fruit, it's a new tactile experience. Go ahead, try

it. Nobody's looking.

 

Even if you do not believe that pesticides pose the

slightest health risk, there is no down side to not

eating them. Whatever benefits they may confer on the

tree, pesticides do you no good in your gut. Children

may consume disproportionally large amounts of

pesticides because kids eat a lot of fruit relative to

their body weight. For parents, there is a measure of

comfort in knowing that their kid's chemical intake

has been minimized.

 

In my opinion, newly detergent-washed fruit does not

keep very well. The former petrochemical coating

probably served as a moisture barrier and even an

oxidation barrier. No worries: you only wash before

you eat.

 

In case you think I am taking too easy-going a view on

chemical farming, I would like to point out that I am

an avid organic gardener. I also advocate purchasing

chemical-free foods whenever possible, including

organically-grown produce. It costs more to buy

organic, but, if you can afford it, it is probably

money well spent. Home gardening, on the other hand,

is an incredibly cheap alternative. All those stories

that you hear about a thirty-dollar investment in seed

and fertilizer yielding seven hundred dollars worth of

fresh food are literally true. If you think I'm more

full of fertilizer than my garden is, I recommend that

you try it and see. For starters, you could try leaf

lettuce, zucchini squash, cucumbers, bush green beans,

and a dozen tomato plants. You will soon be supplying

half the neighborhood.

 

A cheap organic gardening hint: none of the veggies I

just mentioned require any pesticides to grow well.

 

Another cheapskate hint: save those potatoes that are

" no good " because they've sprouted " eyes. " Don't

throw them away; plant them. The " eyes " are indeed

sprouts, each of which will grow into an entire potato

plant bearing several, or even many, spuds. Cut the

'tater up and plant each piece a sprout on it. No

pesticides needed here, either.

 

Pesticides are bug poisons. It is hard to kill an

insect. I distinctly recall flea powdering my Basset

hound, an activity I performed frequently. I'd dust

that dog so well that he looked like one of the Three

Stooges with a sack of four poured on him. There

would be heaps of flea powder in the dog's nooks and

crannies, and I watched fleas walk and even tunnel

through piles of poison powder without ill effect.

Bugs are tough little stinkers, all right. And you

eat the stuff they try to kill them with. Delish!

 

So, as it takes a lot of spray to stop a hungry bug,

it takes at least a little detergent to remove the

spray. Or, you could insist on no sprays, and risk

more bugs. Would you buy such produce? No? Then we

need to be honest, admit it, and be willing to clean

the fruit effectively.

 

Many fruits and vegetables are not merely sprayed, but

are waxed as well. So-called " food grade " waxes

improve shelf life, appearance, and coat over and lock

in any previously applied pesticides. This poses a

problem, for waxes do not readily dissolve in

detergent solution. You might find a product or two

on the market that is certified to remove waxes from

fruits. The other alternative is to simply peel them.

Frequently waxed fruits include apples, pears,

eggplant, cucumbers, squash, and even tomatoes are

generally waxed. The lack of a high gloss is not

proof positive that a fruit is unwaxed: many waxes,

like many types of floor polyurethane or spray

varnish, are not at all shiny. One way to tell if a

fruit or vegetable is waxed is to run your fingernail

over it and see if you can scrape anything off.

Another way is to read the label and see if the

produce is waxed. This may require a trip in back to

the warehouse to see the carton that the produce came

in. Rotsa' ruck on that.

 

A peeler costs under a buck, and effectively removes

wax. A squirt of dish detergent costs a few cents.

The public library costs nothing. For more

pesticide-reducing reading, I recommend:

 

Dworkin, S and Dworkin, F. (1974) The Good Goodies.

New York: Fawcett Crest. ISBN 0-449-23964-0

 

Dworkin, S and Dworkin, F. (1974) The Apartment

Gardener. New York: Signet

 

Fritsch, A. and The Center for Science in the Public

Interest (1977) 99 Ways to a Simple Lifestyle. New

York: Anchor-Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-12493-7 Library of

Congress 76-54756

 

Issac, K and Gold, S ed (1987) Eating Clean 2:

Overcoming Food Hazards. Washington, D.C.: Center for

Study of Responsive Law. ISBN 0-936758-21-X. Library

of Congress 87-73555

 

Kulvinskas, Viktoras (1975) Survival into the 21st

Century. Wethersfield, CT: Omangod Press.

 

Lasky, M. S. (1977) The Complete Junk Food Book. New

York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-036501-6 and ISBN

0-07-036502-4 paperback. Library of Congress 77-9367

 

Robertson, Laurel, et al (1976) Laurel's Kitchen. New

York: Bantam.

 

Taub, H. J. (1975) Keeping Healthy in a Polluted

World. New York: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-003995-3

 

Turner, J. (1970) The Chemical Feast. New York:

Grossman. Library of Congress 73-112515

 

Wigmore, A. (1964) Why Suffer? NY: Hemisphere Press.

 

Wigmore, Ann (1982) Recipes for Longer Life. Garden

City Park, NY: Avery.

 

Copyright C 2002 and prior years Andrew W. Saul,

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USA. Telephone (585) 638-5357