• Dearche@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I understand to a degree allowing an increase in pesticide use (though that’ll seriously impact the water quality due to runoff), the only thing that the industry needs to do to reduce pesticide residue is to just spray the produce with water.

    It’s just a way to cheapen out the process at the expense of people’s health. And I don’t just mean the end shoppers’, but also all the industry workers along the way. While I imagine the amount isn’t a lot, but an increase in pesticide residue that makes it all the way through the supply chain increases how much the workers are exposed to as they handle the produce.

    • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      That’s a very good point. Wasn’t there a study somewhere that found out that there were levels beyond what’s accepted in mothers’ breast milk of the pesticide called Roundup? And the reason was that the water supply was completely contaminated?

      • Dearche@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        I seem to recall something like that.

        Frankly speaking, I don’t think there’s any actively used pesticide that is particularly fine to ingest on a regular basis, even at extremely low levels. That stuff circulates throughout your entire body, and is particularly harmful to both fetuses and breastfeeding infants. And I imagine that pregnant/breastfeeding women are the group that is most conscious about eating healthily, which means tons of fresh fruits and vegetables.

        • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          We don’t know the full impacts of the majority of our industrialized food system. Emulsifiers, perservatives, flavouring agents and pesticides all are relatively new and their effects, impacts, build ups, and mixtures in the human body are not fully studied or understood yet.

          • Dearche@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            The issue is a lack of money studying them, as the only group with the money to do all the studies needed are the ones producing the pesticides, and they have a dedicated interest in only doing enough studies to prove that there are no immediate issues with their products.

            It’s a conflict of interest unless if there’s more government funding into examining these sorts of things, as there are no other major forces that don’t have a invested interest in making sure that the studies make the products look good.

    • EhForumUser@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      the only thing that the industry needs to do to reduce pesticide residue is to just spray the produce with water.

      Water is often the enemy you are applying the pesticide to combat; a practice known as desiccation. Granted, it seems everyone’s favourite desiccant is no longer on the table for modification here.

        • EhForumUser@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          I see you’ve never worked with flour before. Once it meets water there is no turning back.

          Granted, wheat berries aren’t that hard to run through the dryer, assuming you accept the environmental and financial cost. Get into beans, though… Good luck.

          If you just mean something like Apples, which don’t need to be dry, who doesn’t already wash it before consumption already?

          • Dearche@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            Well of course the moment you’ve processed the crop it’s too late to wash them. I was mostly just talking about fruits and vegetables.

            But for grains and legumes, washing them before hulling them shouldn’t be a problem. Of course there’s the issue of added costs, but spraying additional pesticides is also a cost.