Posted in Kitchen

Simple Journey Ministries Presents

Can I have Some More, Please?

Does the origin of your produce matter?

Fresh produce has definitive growing seasons. Produce that is harvested at the end of the natural growing season means that it will not be available at other times of the year. Berries are summer harvesters. If you have berries available in your grocery in February, they were either grown in a warm climate state that can support a longer growing season or they were grown in a hot house that provides the conditions of a natural season indoors.

Last Monday, I posted about which produce has the most pesticides, and should be purchased organically whenever possible. Ideally, you should eat produce during its natural ripening period. In America (since I do not about other countries) we want what we want and we want it when we want it. This has caused farmers to push their growing season, change their farming practices, and use artificial means of producing these products out of season. Because this costs more to do, the cost of out of season produce is high. This applies to organic produce as well. If you are working on including more organic produce in your diet and you have a budget, purchase only what is in season. The cost of organic and local produce, like its conventional counterpart, is significantly less during that time.

But where does the produce come from and what do you need to know to make good decisions for the health of your family?

Pesticide use is not regulated in countries such as Mexico, Central America, and Latin America. Because it is not regulated and the US has such a high demand for produce, these countries push their growing to the limits. Produce exports from these countries is a many source of economics. When I say it isn't regulated, I understand that to mean that their regulations are not as strict as ours. This means that they not only use pesticides that are illegal in the US, but also the amount of pesticides used would be illegal here. US demand for produce and the lack of regulation has caused the push and amounts of pesticides used to rise. Latin America alone has increased the amount of pesticide use by 5%!

So what countries have safe levels of pesticides and use safe pesticides? Well, no pesticide is safe. However, produce grown in the US and Canada has far less pesticide residue than that of our other import partners. 

If you want to keep the amount of pesticides ingested to a bare minimum, buy as much organic produce as possible. When costs are prohibitive on organics, refrain from purchasing produce grown in Latin America, Central America, and Mexico.

Pesticides are not the only thing to be concerned about when purchasing produce. The demand in the US has also encouraged the concept of genetically modifying produce so that it can be grown in climates and areas that are natural for it to grow, as well as out of season growing times. This produce may look the same, but it never tastes the same as produce that is purchased in season, because it does not have the same qualities. This also means that the nutrition benefits of GM produce are inferior.

How can you tell what you are getting at the grocery? That's simple. Check the PLU # on the little sticker.

Conventinal produce will have a 4 digit number.

Organic produce will begin with a 9 followed by four digits.

Genetically modified produce will begin with an 8 followed by four digits.

These are my thoughts.