My feeling when it comes to pesticide residues in our food is that the only safe limit is a zero limit. If I were to tell you that 50% of the food you eat contains pesticide residues, how would you feel?

My Grandad farmed on this piece of land that we now farm organically. He had a mixed family farm and grew much of his own food as did many in the locality back then. This food was more nutritious, it tasted better, it was fresher than food today, it was free from chemicals, and it was local and seasonal.
Today our food system is a complex web of producers, processors and logistics. When we walk into a supermarket, we don’t have time to think too much about where our food comes from our how it was produced, the shiny plastic packs of produce give us the impression that our food system is limitless, vibrant and fair. Indeed, this very supermarket system and the global food corporations that supply it have disconnected us from our food and have been complicit in devaluing our most valuable commodity: food.
Since my grandad’s time in the early 1950’s agriculture and food have changed unrecognisably. It has undergone a green revolution. Ironically this “green revolution” has left our current food system broken. GMOs, giant monocultures, pesticides, herbicides, artificial fertilisers and factory farms dominate our global food supply system, all hidden behind those shiny plastic packs on the supermarket shelves.
The term “green revolution” was always something that struck me as a bit odd, especially when you consider what green means today, this was a revolution that switched our agricultural system from a natural approach to a chemistry centred approach.
I am an organic farmer, but I wasn’t always. In fact, and again ironically, I was an organic chemist, I have a Ph. D in chemistry from Cambridge University. I spent nearly 15 years working with chemicals, pharmaceuticals and in the biotech industry, so I know a thing or two about chemicals.
Today chemicals are used to force nature to behave in the way they want, they have tried to impose factory type controls onto the natural environment that we rely on for our food. But nature is not a factory, and the same rules do not apply, you cannot indiscriminately apply chemicals to our food and not expect a fall out.
A report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has found that nearly half the food they tested from almost 81,000 food samples had pesticides in them. Strawberries and lettuce are the most likely to exceed safe limits, the agency found. They are especially sensitive to fungus and bugs and so undergo considerable spraying with pesticides.
More than one in four (27.3%) of the food samples contained traces of more than one pesticide.
The food we put into our bodies is one of the most valuable investments we can ever make. The simple fact is you can taste value, and if you have ever tasted a freshly harvested tomato, warm from the vine, free from chemicals, full of life and nutrition, then you will know what I am talking about here, that is real value. I think my grandad instinctively knew that, but then again that was all there was back then.
Here is to the best value food in the world.
As always thank you for your support.
Kenneth
Link to report below.
A new report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has found that more than 97% of foods contain pesticide residue levels that fall within legal limits. Strawberries are the most likely to exceed safe limits, the agency found.
About 55% of the samples evaluated by EFSA were free of detectable traces of these chemicals, the agency said.
This means nearly half of food products in Europe contain residues of pesticides.
The highest rate of exceeding safety limits was for strawberries (2.5% of the sample), followed by lettuce (2.3%). They are especially sensitive to fungus and bugs and so undergo considerable spraying with pesticides.
‘Cocktail’ effects
More than one in four (27.3%) of the food samples contained traces of more than one pesticide.