Zoe - organic food

[Fluke]

Another interesting podcast from the Zoe people this week, the subject was organic food, well worth a listen.

Things I never knew include that non-organic oats have particularly high levels of organophosphates and glyphosates as they are sprayed just before harvesting to help dry them dry out, non-organic strawberries also have higher than average amounts but for different reasons. Organic fruit and veg have about 40% higher levels of polyphenols (good for the gut microbes) than their non-organic equivalents, the polyphenols are produced by the plant to fend off predators, something non-organic plants don't have to do because it's all done for them so they can put their energy into growing bigger. Non-organic fruit and veg is still very good for the fibre but very much reduced in nutrients especially those polyphenols.

If you're going to buy anything organic make it tomatoes because we all eat quite a lot of them and being watery they absorb more of the chemicals. Organic tinned and frozen foods are cheaper to produce/store and therefore to buy. Non-organic things that have a skin that you peel off are probably ok, e.g. avocados, onions etc.

There was something about not being able to trust the labels but I don't think they went into that unless I missed it.

I'm off out to buy some frozen organic berries if I can find some.

[DrFfybes]

Another interesting podcast from the Zoe people this week, the subject was organic food, well worth a listen.

Things I never knew include that non-organic oats have particularly high levels of organophosphates and glyphosates as they are sprayed just before harvesting to help dry them dry out, .

Pretty much every large scale combine harvested crop is the same - low level Glyphosate spray as a dessicant 14-21 days before harvest in order to ensure the whole field is at the same stage at the same time. Otherwise half a field can be ready before the other half, or can even g'go over' before the first half is harvest ready. They are harvesting 100 acres of Rape seed behind us as I type. Started yesterday, sprayed 2 Wednesdays ago. So wheat, any bean crops (soy, etc) rape, all get sprayed.

Personally I think that is one use of Glyphosate that should be banned, as a generic weedkiller it is good and breaks down relatively quickly in the soil (although the breakdown products themselves aren't great so actual degredation takes longer), however when pre-harvest sprays are applied the farmer tens to work backwards from "How much residue are we allowed to have on the crop at harvest" and that determines how much they can get away with spraying. UNless there is heavy rain in the intervening fortnight then there will always be residue on the crop. It is very rare for residue to exceed limits, and in the US the FDA actually publish their test results each year from harvested crop analysis.

f you're going to buy anything organic make it tomatoes because we all eat quite a lot of them and being watery they absorb more of the chemicals.

Not Glyphosate though - don't need to dry down fruits I haven't found the Zoe stuff but I amsurprised about toms being an issue, when I last looked most fruit chemicals were not particularly good at moving through the plant vascular system (if they even got into the soil) or good at passing through waxy fruit skins so I would expect them to accumuate on the surface rather than the flesh. Now anything that says "use the zest of a lemon" should be avoided

OTOH we have a friend that bought an organic vineyard that was struggling, turned out to have nearly 10X the EU (remember them?) limit of copper in the soil due to repeated fungicide treatment. Took about 5 years before he could grown anything on the land. That was before the EU reduced the limits, but he reckoned the previous owner had been applying well over the limits for years.

Paul