Which of your favorite produce is “dirty” (loaded with pesticides) and which “clean,” and how do those pesticides harm our bodies? Do you really want to eat those strawberries or raisins? Download the 2020 Environmental Working Group’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce to see what’s “clean” and what’s “dirty.” (Raisins not included because the list doesn’t include processed foods, but 99% have pesticide residue and up to 26 pesticides can be on them).
Tag Archive for pesticide
Bad Bee-Havior
Kill more bees! They can be a nuisance–when not pollinating our plants so we can have fruit, vegetables, nuts, and flowers. Do we really need all that produce and beauty anyway?
That seems to be the attitude of Syngenta Crop Protection LLC. They’ve asked the EPA to relax their rules about legal limits of a pesticide reside that is a proven cause of the marked decline in the bee population over the last 30 years. They want to increase the limit 4000 times (yes, four thousand), ensuring an even quicker decline in bees and, therefore, crops pollinated by them.
For more details, click on http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060005321.
Are You Unwittingly Committing Bee-acide?
Your bee-friendly plants may be killing bees. According to a report from Friends of the Earth and the Pesticide Research Institute, some of those plants (like sunflowers) that you thought were bee-friendly have been treated–before they reach Lowe’s, Home Depot, and other garden centers–with pesticides that harm bees. The EPA’s new rules ban use of certain pesticides (those that contain imidacloprid, dinotefuran, clothianidin and thiamethoxam) where bees are present. But that doesn’t ensure that those lovely plants have not been infused with the stuff before they hit your store.
For more information, read the NBC Science News article “Bee-killing pesticide found in garden store plants: What does it mean?”
When you shop for plants for your garden, read their labels and ask if the plants have been treated with nerve-killing pesticides that harm and kill bees. If the answer is Yes, or if they don’t know, tell them you’ll shop elsewhere until they can assure you that their plants are not harmful.