What are you eating?

23 July 2010: So today I learned in a more personal way why it is best to eat organically.

Maybe you heard the news: there is a California State interior quarantine for both Placer and Sacramento counties because of the Oriental fruit fly. I was working in my local community garden this morning and was present when the California Department of Food and Agriculture showed up. They mistook the community garden for a grower of fruits and veggies. With the quarantine in place, growers, meaning the folks that supply the produce in your grocery store or farmer’s market, need to treat their possible host plant material with either Malathion or an organic spray before it goes to market. That means the nonorganic cukes, apricots, apples, avocados, bananas, cactus, cherries, gooseberries, lemons, limes, loquats, mangos, nectarines, oranges, peppers, tomatoes, plums, walnuts etc. are being treated with Malathion. Home gardens and our community garden are exempt, but the State requires that we not share our produce outside of the quarantine area. So if you are not eating organic, this is it. You are getting a dose of Malathion. And probably so are folks outside our area who eat our county’s produce. Malathion toxicity can be reviewed at: http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC32924.

First published 23 July 2010