Thanks for that interesting read. But, to be sure, there are truths, half-truths and lies in that article. It seems to me big business don't want to lose some business to producers of "organic" or fertilizer-free veggies and fruits, and so they spread their misinformation.
The truth is that veggies and fruits have been grown with animal manure since time immemorial and the human stomach has developed much resistance to various types of bacteria. It is entirely possible that our resistance to the bacteria has been reduced considerably because we have been eating non-organically grown foods for a long time. Another problem is that many folks don't wash their veggies and fruits well enough. I recall a time when I was in Afghanistan in the late early sixties. Hygienic conditions were so deplorable that a good number of American tourists were obliged to wash their fruits in laundry-bleach first before peeling them to eat!!!
In China, a way out of the E. coli and salmonella problems is to wash the organically-grown veggies and fruits in a dilute solution of potassium permanganate, KMnO4(aq), a powerful oxidizing agent and bactericide, before using them. But the Chinese seldom, if ever, eat raw veggies; they usually like them cooked, thereby protecting themselves.
I believe a lot of the things the food authorities say is hog-wash and sometimes downright funny. For example, at one time, there was a push to get folks to buy over-ripe reeking bananas for the simple reason they have the full complement of sugars in them. Then when the tofu craze got underway, warnings were issued that tofu contains female-like hormones that could "sissify" you --- causing development of female characteristics.
My friends have found that naturally-grown veggies have far more taste than the stuff found of supermarket shelves.
It might interest you to know that some of the world's sweetest peaches ever grown came from fields that turned out to have been scenes of pitched battles several hundred years ago. |
