Caveat eater: Strawberries are about to get more toxic

Originally posted by TiredofControlFreaks
You know - it wouldn't be too hard to do a little background research before posting such a sensational headline!

There are rules around here. One of them is you must post the headline from an article word for word.

Virtually everyone but the EPA and the company that sells the methyl iodide product, thinks it should NOT be used on the strawberries. They all overlooked the fact that it's safer ? I doubt it.

I don't buy for a minute, that without toxic pesticides, crop losses would be so severe, that people would starve to death.

All of the chemcials we create are building up in the biosphere. It's not without consequences.

reply to post by TiredofControlFreaks


I agree completely, Tired. I worked in a large grocery produce department for 10 years and in all that time there was only one sickness directly tied to produce and it was a parasite, shigella. It's usually a matter of shipping and handling that you need to be wary of. Shigella is spread by poor hygenine practices in the field, not something that is used in the farming. Green onions, salad mixes, cilantro...all pulled for e-coli, also a parasite/bacteria spread by poor hygenine in the field, using the irrigation ditches for toilets and spraying the now-sewage over the field to water the crop.

Come on people. Research and fight the right problem. Sensationalism draws your attention, but without doing a little research on your own, you can still be making the wrong choices.

And to counter all the 'local growers', heck yes buy locally. It's the best way to get the freshest produce and supports the local farmers. BUT....
most of the local growers in my area are Amish, who use migrant pickers. Amish do not allow modern plumbing. They still use outhouses. And they have built very nice homes for the pickers, without modern plumbing. What's provided for toilets in the field? The area behind a bush, most likely. How do they wash their hands? Most likely, they don't. Much of what they grow would fall under the "organic" label, but it doesn't mean it's any safer than any other produce.

Originally posted by TiredofControlFreaks



1. There would be a shortage of strawberries as crop losses mount. If this plan was followed for all crops, we could expect food shortages with people starving to death. I guess I would rather die of cancer in my old age then die of starvation now.

And you accuse other people of being alarmists? That is pretty funny. There would be some crop loss, but not total crop loss as you argue.

If that were the case, there wouldn't be an organic market.

Reply to Noxi_Mox

Nope Sorry - I have to reject the alarmist label!

Please read the following link:

www.ccof.org...

Please read the part:

Growing Strawberries in California

California is the largest strawberry producer in the United States, accounting for over 80% of the nation’s fresh strawberries on 50% of the total acreage in production. This discrepancy is attributable to California’s ability to grow four times the amount per acre as other states in the US. To achieve these yields and to control the pests that plague strawberries, the majority of California growers have become increasingly dependent on chemical inputs. Organic strawberry production, which excludes the use of toxic synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and requires soil building and biological pest control, accounts for 4% of the state’s total production. Consumer demand is rapidly out growing the supply, and there is the potential for farmers to make large profits. But what is holding back farmers from meeting this growing demand? A high level of pest pressure and a lack of research; “Conventional farmers have decades worth of research to draw on, while organic growers have very little scientific data to rely on,” stated Carol Shennan previous director of the UCSC CASFS, but there are a number of researchers hoping to change this.

Let me re-post the pertinent sentence: To achieve these yields and to control the pests that plague strawberries, the majority of California growers have become increasingly dependent on chemical inputs.

Did you get that? To ACHIEVE THESE YIELDS......

We have an increasing population and a higher demand for strawberries. Soil fumigants are necessary at this time to achieve those higher yields.

However - perhaps this will not always be so - more research is needed.

In the meantime - would those of you who are scared to death of "toxic exposures' in the parts per trillion or parts per quadrillion range - please continue to pay premium prices for the "organically" grown strawberries.

But what I eat is absolutely NOT your business and neither is it the business of organic farmers.

TIRED OF CONTROL FREAKS

Reply to stars_15K

Yes - I do understand completely. Carcinogens are produced just as readily by mother nature as they are by the chemical companies. Carcinogens are ubiquitous to the environment. We are constantly exposed and surrounded by carcinogens. And yet - cancer remains generally a disease of old age.

Exposure to bacteria however is a whole other deal, now isn't it?

TIRED OF CONTROL FREAKS

Everyone might also be interested in reading this article:

nutrition.suite101.com...

Note: crop yields decreasing 20 to 40 % and up to 70 %

Please explain to me exactly who you expect to starve in order to achieve your dreams of a pesticide free world?

Now don't anyone get me wrong here. I would prefer if food could be grown without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. I especially hate any instance of the overuse of pesticide or fertilizers. Particularly as it results in resistant strains of pests.

However, I am a human being. I feel a deep need to see hunger eradicated before cancer being eradicated. I hate to see hungry children. Sometimes the best we can do is choose the best of two evils. I choose to feed the masses.

Tired of Control Freaks.

reply to post by Schaden


Oh well. I grow my own strawberries, and I don't use any pesticides on them and have no problems. I have late season producers that are still giving me some but that's about ending now. I don't buy them if I don't grow them.

I only have 4 pots of them currently but they're about to start sending their vine-shoot things out and I hope to successfully multiply my plants this time around. They berry during spring and when it gets too hot they stop berrying and start sending out the the side shoots that root. Last year I started with 4 tiny ones, which got big. Some died but they sent shoots out into the pots around them. I have a pot with a perennial strawberry growing in with a (perennial) pepper plant, that got there by hitch-hiking its way in. (All peppers are actually perennials).

Blueberries are still growing strong, even though I have only one small little deal I paid $7 for last fall. It still gives me a few blueberries a day. I usually get a few blueberries and a strawberry or 2 a day I eat while I'm watering. By next year I'll have even more producers to help broaden my flavors during the course of the year.

I have about 15 Goji Berry shrubs I planted last fall from seed and I can already tell how fast they're growing I should be getting berries within a year. I also have 3 different types of blackberries growing: one type I dug up from 'the wild' over at my employers house. Another I bought as tiny cuttings. The third I bought last year as berries, and squished all the seeds out of them. I tried planting them about a year ago and nothing happened. I finally read that they need to freeze for a month or so before they'll germinate. So the soil I tried planting them in got recycled into other pots, probably a couple times. This spring all the sudden I found 2 blackberries sprouting up out of pepper pots!

[edit on 3-6-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

reply to post by TiredofControlFreaks


Irradiation would do wonders for this problem, but the alarmists will never allow it. The only thing to worry about with irradiation would be a slipping of sanitary practices made by some who think they don't have to be clean because it's going to be irradiated and sterilized anyway.

I figured this out with the Center for Science in the Public Interest (I think that's their name, it's close) lovely picturesque quote:

"You can irradiate poop, and it will be sterile, BUT it will still be poop."

reply to post by Mike Stivic


I just went to the local nursery.

They pretty much sold me ones that do good in our area. We got two different varieties. I think one may have been called ever bearing?

We had a decent crop the first year and this year has been outstanding.

reply to post by Wildbob77


Ever bearing is what I have. They're not true ever-bearing (meaning bear all year long), but they bear months further into hot season that typical ones do.

In Florida the farms don't grow this type. They grow the standard ones, because we're the first area in the nation to get warm enough for them to produce. A month or 2 later California's crops start coming in and the market gets flooded. And then on up until eventually even Michigan produces them.

I'm not sure if the farmers just dig them up and plant the next seasonal crop, but I know that this year the plants produced so much after the cold snap that once the California crops hit the market the farmers were just letting them spoil in the field, and many even allowed people to go pick their own for free.

Once the Cali crops hit it costs more money to pick them than they're even worth!! Hard to believe but it's true. I was outraged when I first heard they were letting them spoil.

This is an instance where I think there is strong evidence that the organic farmers DO NOT have the best interests of the consumer or even the environment in mind.

With methyl bromide being banned due to its ozone-depleting properties, if the organic farmers could lobby the government to continue its ban on methyl iodide, then essentially all the strawberry farmers in California would experience reduced yields.

This would cause the price of strawberries to rise and increase their profit margin!

Be careful what you wish for folks - you just might get it!

Tired of Control Freaks

Relax!!!!

Organic products are nothing except water and soil. It take more effort to maintenance to ensure products doesn't plague with diseases, bugs, etc. without need to use toxic materials on the products. Those farmers who use chemicals on products are lazy, period.

reply to post by Wildbob77


thanks for the the strain, also wondering did you buy seeds and germinate them yourself ?

on our farm we grew a strain called tri star, my boss gave me some transplants and i had berries in my garden the following year , but at the farm starting from seed they would take two years to bear "marketable" fruit.

in anycase growing your own veggies fruits and berries is always the way to go in my opinion.something about the elbow grease fertilizer makes them taste all the sweeter.


edit: for typo


[edit on 3-6-2010 by Mike Stivic]

What do you think people used thousands of years ago to rid their crops of pests?

It sure as heck wasn't methyl iodide.

A little knowledge and greed is a dangerous thing.

Hey, why not just spray cyanide or ricin?

Thousands of years ago, people starved when crops failed!

Further, people applied raw sewage to crops and died of waterborne diseases!

Have you noticed? Even with all this pesticide use and chemical fertilizers, we are living longer and healthier lives then our grandparents did!

As for cyanide - it is naturally in the soil and is contained in all crops grown in it. Its the green spot in potatoes.

Is ricin a good pesticide? Why do you suggest using it on crops????

Tired of Control Freaks

Why doesn't everyone take a good look at the chemicals and carcinogens of which our food is typically composed. Mind- this is natural whether the food is organically grown or not!

www.fortfreedom.org...

COURSE: CHEMICAL COMPOSITION INCLUDES:

APPETIZER
Cream of Mushroom Soup hydrazines

FRESH VEGETABLE TRAY
Carrots caratoxin, myristicin, isoflavones, nitrate
Radishes glucosinolates, nitrate
Cherry Tomatoes hydrogen peroxide, nitratem quercetin glyco-
side, tomatine
Celery nitrate, psoralens

ENTREE
Roast Turkey heterocyclic amines, malonaldehyde
Bread Stuffing benzo(a)pyrene, di- and tr-sulfides,
with onions, celery, ethyl carbamate, furan derivatives,
black pepper, mushrooms hydrazines, psoralens, safrole
Cranberry Sauce eugenol, furan derivatives

CHOICE OF VEGETABLE:
Lima Beans cyanogenetic glycosides
Broccoli Spears allyl isothio cyanate, glucosinolates,
goitrin, nitrate
Baked Potato amylase inhibitors, arsenic, chaconine,
isoflavones, nitrate, oxalic acid,
solanine
Sweet Potato cyanogenetic glycosides, furan derivatives,
nitrate
Rolls with Butter amylase inhibitors, benzo(a)pyrene, ethyl
carbanate, furan derivatives, diacetyl

DESSERT

Pumpkin Pie with myristicin, nitratem safrole
Cinnamon and Nutmeg

BEVERAGES

Coffee benzo(a)pyrene, caffeine, chlorogenic acid,
hydrogen peroxide, methyglyoxal, tannins

Tea benzo(a)pyrene, caffeine, quercetin, glyco-
sides, tannins
Red Wine alcohol, ethyl carbamate, methyglyoxal, tan-
nins, tyramine

Water available nitrate
upon request

ASSORTED NUTS

Mixed Nuts aflatoxins


Quite freaking out over NOTHING. You are exposed to carcinogens and chemicals from the day you are conceived until the day you die! You can't avoid it.

Stop messing with the food chain unless you intend to volunteer to be the one who starves.

Tired of Control Freaks

more info at the bottom of that OP link

Correction: Approval of methyl iodide has been proposed but
not yet finalized, pending public comment.

The state is accepting public comment through June 14. Let them
know that people trump profits.

so maybe we ought to let them know how we feel.
Send your comments to:

[email protected]

reply to post by TiredofControlFreaks

Google natural pesticide, pesticide alternatives, etc.

Have you only just begun to awaken? Just as with alternative/natural health, TPTB and the companies that lobby for them have a habit of ignoring harmless solutions. Perhaps it's because if there isn't always a brand new, better "study" going on, no-one profits. If companies can't patent and/or monopolize the creation process, they can't profit and it won't be allowed.

A quick example. Why isn't there more investment in concentrated garlic or essential oil pesticides? Probably because these products are fully researched and relatively un-patentable. Harmful solutions are unnecessary and equate to deliberate negligence at best and terrorism at worst.

oh good ill just have a strawberry with my cigarette then.

Sadly this new chemical is a lot safer then what they were using which was methyl bromide, but there were a lot of other alternatives available. Its like replacing ricin with arsenic, both are poisons, both will kill you, it's just the arsenic kills you just a little slower and takes more poison to do it.