[CH] Pesticides on peppers
Margaret Lauterbach (melauter@earthlink.net)
Wed, 30 Jun 2004 10:24:24 -0600
Do you spray pesticides on chile plants? I don't, and a friend tells me I
can't extrapolate from my experience to what the rest of the world
does. "FoodNews" from the Environmental Working Group reports one of the
dozen most contaminated fresh foods is bell peppers.
"Spinach, celery, potatoes, and sweet bell peppers are the vegetables most
likely to expose consumers to pesticides. Among these four vegetables:
* Celery had the highest of percentage of samples test positive for
pesticides (94.5 percent), followed by spinach (83.4 percent) and potatoes
(79.3 percent).
* Celery also had the highest likelihood of multiple pesticides on a
single vegetable (78 percent of samples), followed by spinach (51.8
percent) and sweet bell peppers (48.5 percent).
* Spinach was the vegetable with the most pesticides detected on a
single sample (10 found on one sample), followed by celery and sweet bell
peppers (both with nine).
* Sweet bell peppers were the vegetable with the most pesticides
overall with 39, followed by spinach at 36 and celery and potatoes, both
with 29. "
This study is cited at http://www.foodnews.org/reportcard.php. I can't
imagine farmers spraying pesticides that aren't needed, and I don't believe
these figures because of the bell pepper inclusion and the report that
broccoli was pretty clean of pesticides.
Gardening in Intermountain West and Handicapped gardening
http://www.margaretlauterbach.com