I'd already read plenty of things that said organic fruits and vegetables are no more nutritious than their far less expensive traditionally grown cousins.
But I accepted that there could be advantages in pesticide residue. I figured washing the things should address that issue, but who knows? Perhaps it can't be all washed off. If that is important to you, buy the expensive stuff.
Apparently, the pesticide advantage is rather imaginary (tip to Instapundit):
First, let’s start with the fact that organic does not mean pesticide-free. As scientist and writer Christie Wilcox explains in several eye-opening blog posts over at Scientific American, organic farmers can and often do use pesticides. The difference is that conventional farmers are allowed to use synthetic pesticides, whereas organic farmers are (mostly) limited to “natural” ones, chosen primarily because they break down easily in the environment and are less likely to pollute land and water. (I say “mostly” because several synthetic chemicals are approved for use in organic farming, too.)
Organic doesn't mean pesticide-free? Huh.
And then there is this teaching-to-the-test revelation:
Ah, but what about all those studies that suggest that organic fruits and veggies harbor fewer pesticide residues than conventionally farmed produce does? Those studies only tested for synthetic pesticides. In the few studies that have also looked for natural pesticides—the USDA’s Pesticide Data Program tested for them on organic lettuce in 2009, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation tested a handful of organic fruits and vegetables for certain natural and synthetic pesticides in 2010, and the USDA did an analysis of organic produce in 2010—scientists have found that between 15 and 43 percent of organic produce samples harbor measurable traces of either natural or synthetic pesticides or both. As far as I can tell, however, no one has published a comparison of the overall amounts of both types of pesticides on organic versus conventional produce, so it’s hard to conclude much from these findings other than that, yes, organic produce can be pesticide-tainted, too.
Wait. What? Organic farmers may use natural pesticides and even some approved synthetic pesticides?
And some natural pesticides are actually more dangerous than synthetics?
But the residue! The residue!
Well, the studies that are used to proclaim the superiority of the organic fruits and vegetables on that score basically only looked for synthetic pesticides.
It should not be a shock that produce grown with synthetic pesticides will show more synthetic pesticide residue than crops grown with natural pesticides or a mix of both.
Of course, some of the hippie purist farmers won't use anything. But as organics make it into lots of stores in large quantities, I'm sure that more and more "certified organic" crops are using those approved pesticides. There just aren't that many purist hippie farmers who will lovingly swat away pests by hand, no?
So there. I'm not poisoning my children. And they have college funds, too.
