News Coverage
To Buy or Not to Buy?
Published June 5, 2007
Strawberries_2It's strawberry season!! But I'm not sure that's a good thing. What it means for me is that I'm confronted with the dilemma of whether to pay the big bucks for organic strawberries or to go for the 2 for $5 special on the conventional, pesticide-laden variety. Or do I skip them altogether?
I have to admit that I already bought one package of conventional strawberries this season....and served them to my kids...and then felt kind of guilty about it. A quick web search will bring up lots of articles saying that strawberries are one of the worst offenders when it comes to pesticide retention. Pesticide exposure can lead to big problems like birth defects, hormone disruption, cognitive development issues and cancer. It's not really clear just how much pesticide exposure it takes to cause these awful things but most people seem to agree that limiting exposure is key. If you want to know more, check out this report by the Environmental Working Group. It explains why reducing pesticide exposure is so important - especially for kids. And Grinning Planet has a nice, printable wallet guide ranking the safety of most fruits & veggies - I like it because it's more comprehensive than the usual 'dirty dozen' lists.
Img_0128_2What I really should do is wait for some local strawberries to show up at the farmer's market. But here in Minnesota we don't get much. Last year we got a whole box full of homegrown strawberries from John's brother's garden. They were amazing! So incredibly sweet and with about 1000 times more flavor than the kind from the store (organic or not). Check out the delicious strawberry sauce we made with them!
I'm dying to know how other people deal with this. Do you avoid conventional strawberries altogether? Or do you just buy them occasionally and try to limit total pesticide exposure in other ways?
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