Mike Carruthers

I want to start today on Something You Should Know with something I've wondered about for the longest time.

As I understand it, the difference between organic produce and conventionally grown produce is growers of conventional produce can use chemical pesticides.

Organic growers cannot.

But then we hear frequently that the levels of pesticides on conventional produce are low and that the more dangerous pesticides have been banned, so there's really nothing to worry about.

Still, a lot of people buy organic because they don't want pesticides on their food.

So, which is it?

Are pesticides on conventionally grown produce nothing to worry about?

Or not?

Well, Consumer Reports just did an investigation and published a report, and it says that, well, that there's good news and bad news.

The bad news is that pesticides posed significant risk in 20% of the foods they looked at.

These included bell peppers, blueberries, green beans, potatoes, and strawberries.

One food, in fact, green beans, had residue of a pesticide that hasn't been allowed to be used on vegetables in the U.S.

for over 10 years.

And imported produce, especially from Mexico, was particularly likely to carry risky levels of pesticide residue.

And there was good news.

Pesticides presented little to worry about in nearly two-thirds of the produce they tested, including nearly all of the organic ones.

An example of how tricky this gets, though, is that only 11 out of the 330 watermelons they tested had high levels of a pesticide.

But they had really high levels, and there's no way for you as the consumer to tell.

I suggest you read this report, particularly if you have children in the family or are or plan to get pregnant.

There's a link to the report from Consumer Reports in the show notes.