Fake Farms, what do you think…

by Kenneth Keavey

What do “Egan’s” and “Farrell’s” have in common?

They are all brand names used on supermarket packed own label fruit and veg. They give you the impression that they are family farms, BUT THEY ARE NOT.  They are marketing mechanisms, to make us feel warm and happy that we are supporting these assumed lovely family farms.

We are working hard on our Real farm to get the autumn harvest out and the conditions are favourable; this is the same in the remaining Irish vegetable farms up and down the country the likes of Beechlawn Organic farm, or McCormacks Family farm, or Philip Dreaper’s farm in Offaly where we get our Irish carrots, or Richard Galvin in Clashganny organic farm who supplies our organic Irish apples, and many, many more.

These family names used in some supermarkets give the impression there is a real farm with a family name behind the carrots, or tomatoes on their shelf. I recently went to check this out in a large Retailer.

In their fruit and veg section I was convinced that “Farrell’s” which was labelled on much of their Irish produce was a family farm and this family were producing a wealth of produce. At least at first glance that was my impression. I’m in the veg growing business I am a grower and understand a little of how these things work and I was taken in by the misleading advertising.

As I looked a little closer it seemed that my original assumption was not at all correct. “Farrell’s” is not a real farm; it is a marketing tool created by the supermarket to give the consumer that warm homely glow of things being done right.

Does it matter?

Well, I think it does, firstly, this is misleading, you are led to believe the produce is coming from “Farrell’s”, and it is not.  

The second interesting point that is worth considering is that this brand allows supermarkets or more frequently large pack houses and distribution centres, to take in produce from multiple farms and blend it into packs, so the carrots may be coming from multiple suppliers and you or I will never know.  This practice is now frequently called “blending”.

This is very helpful for large retailers as it gives it them the balance of power when it comes to price negotiation, and the ultimate flexibility to choose whose carrots or apples to put into their bag.

When the grower is hidden, he has less power to negotiate a fair price and as with all own branded products on supermarket shelves they are cheaper. It is this pricing structure that has done the damage to growers all over Ireland over the last twenty years.

As always with your support our real Farm continues to grow and our support for other REAL growers can be fair and transparent.

Thank you.

Kenneth

PS Thank you to everybody who donated to our Gaza appeal during the week, I am waiting on final confirmation but the total donated is looking like it was €2380, so thank you so much to everybody, we will be topping this up with the 50% of €1190 making the total donation we will make to the UNICEF Gaza appeal €3570. We will confirm this early next week and be making the donation straight away.

Irish organic apples….. There are only 35 commercial apple growers left in Ireland

by Kenneth Keavey

Some 95 per cent of apples eaten in Ireland were grown elsewhere. Today there are only 35 full-time commercial apple growers in Ireland, down from 50 in 2017. And 40 per cent of all the apples grown here are Bramley cooking apples. (link to Irish Times article https://www.irishtimes.com/food/2025/09/06/the-secret-world-of-irish-apples-why-are-they-so-juicy-and-why-do-we-import-most-of-those-we-buy).

There were over 400 Irish commercial veg growers in the 90s, today that number is just 60, and we are one of those. We have just had the first delivery of Organic Irish Elstar apples from Richard Galvin in Waterford, and I have to say they are some of the finest apples we have ever received, they are amazing, well-done Richard.

We are serious about supporting Irish suppliers, as you may know we grow loads of our own organic veg, but we also support a wide range of other Irish organic growers. We I believe have the distinct advantage of being both a grower and a retailer, we get to see both sides of the field (no pun intended, oh dear..) so to speak. In fact, it can seem quite weird some days sitting in a meeting with our main fresh buyer Anna and our farm manager Emmanuel, and discovering that nobody will end up happy, not enough for the farm and not enough to run the retail business, and not enough to compete with the crazy discounted prices of supermarkets.

But the key difference between us and the general run of the mill supermarkets is that we actually do what we say. So instead of putting smiling Irish farmers all over their lovely supermarket walls maybe they should back that up by actually properly supporting Irish producers and paying fair prices and buying more Irish produce when it is available at a fair price.

We will always buy Irish first and foremost, always, and we always do. To be honest even when it is more of a pain than a gain and that sometimes too can have an impact on perceived value, because it is always, always more expensive to buy. One thing I know for sure is this, we have tonnes and tonnes of Irish organic produce right now, quite literally and we certainly have Irish apples and not only from one Irish organic farmer but two. I could list out all the other Irish farmers that we partner with or buy from, but that might be boring, but do you know what? I think I will anyway, because it annoys and upsets me that we work so hard, and supermarkets get to do whatever they want and present this idea of being the biggest Irish supporters when it just is not true, and they get away with it because they have all the power, (I think we have seen enough of what people with power do in the world today and how much havoc that can wreck on our people and planet, you know who I am talking about here)

So here goes in no particular order: (So these growers are not only Irish, but also all organic too) in total 18 Irish organic farmers.

Joe Kelly, Mayo – cucumbers, yellow courgettes, radishes, lettuce, coriander, parsley, French beans

Philip Dreaper, Offaly – carrots, beetroot

Cameron – Battlemount organic farm, Kildare, potatoes and apples juice.

Richard Galvin, Waterford – apples, apple juice, apple cider vinegar

Audrey and Mick, Galway – parsley, chard, salad mix, rocket, spinach

Padraigh and Una, Beechlawn, Galway – fennel, spinach, onions, cabbages, celery, leeks, beetroot, scallions.

Darragh Donnelly, Dublin – cherries, apples

Banner Berries, Clare – blueberries

Culinary Microherbs, Dublin – MicrogreensGarryhinch, Offaly – exotic mushrooms

McArdle, Antrim – chestnut, portobello mushrooms

Roy Little – leeks

Alison, Slieve Bloom organics, scallions, radish.

Oranmore Farm, Raman – occasionally, French beans, salad mix

Sloe hill Farm – occasionally, herbs (basil, parsley)

Paul Brophy, Kildare, Broccoli

Emmett Dunne, Carrots

Green Earth Organics farm, Kale, broccoli, bunched carrots, parsnips, swede, leeks, spinach, lettuce, salad, onions, celeriac, celery, beetroot, courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes and more.

So, you see, your support makes a very real difference to us, to Richard (our apple grower) to Emmanuel (our farm manager), to the planet and to all the other farmers that depend on your orders to keep the produce rolling in off organic Irish fields.

As always thank you for continuing to support us.

Kenneth.

Irish apples, picking apples, and the Dirty Dozen…

by Kenneth Keavey

I remember as a young lad having to climb trees to pick apples in my grandad’s orchard. Having been pruned and tended to over the years they had grown to to a very decent height (you needed a tall ladder to get to the top apples) these apples were never ever sprayed, and when they were picked they were stored on galvanised sheets in a cool shed, providing apples until nearly Christmas. Any those that had blemishes were used first.

During the week I was speaking to Richard Galvin who has been our Irish organic apple supplier for nearly 10 years. His apples are wonderful; they are Irish and organic and crucially are not sprayed with any synthetic chemicals. We have been receiving excellent organic apples from a Fairtrade co-op in France and from Darragh Donnelly in Dublin, and there have been some issues, at least if you were a supermarket there would be an issue.

The issue if you would call it an issue is that some of these apples are not perfect, they have slight blemishes on the skin, some of the blemishes are not ok to send out and as a result we need to grade and examine every single organic apple by hand. We do this and that is ok, but it takes time and people.

Now contrast this with the perfect apples that grace your average supermarket shelf. How do they end up so perfect and end up lasting for so long?

There is a reason that they look the way they look, and a big part of that is the synthetic chemicals that are used in their production.

Apples nearly always feature in the Dirty Dozen, and although this is a US survey, there is plenty of research demonstrating that European apples, or in fact many of the apples imported into Europe from further afield have plenty of pesticide residues on them. Apples are one of the most sprayed fresh products you can buy. A recent survey in the Netherlands found chemicals in every single sample they tested (1 click here for the article). Some had a cocktail of residues.

In Ireland in 2022 the department of agriculture tested 70 different samples of apples, 55 (or 79%!) had pesticide residues and over 4% had residues deemed as unsafe. If you would prefer not to have pesticides on your food (whether they were deemed to be below the safe limit or not) the fact that nearly 80% of all samples tested right here in Ireland had recorded pesticides is enough to make up my mind. (2 click here for the data and go to page 138)

There may be an argument to be had that these chemicals help reduce food waste, and that has a certain validity, but on the other hand, if supermarkets were happy to sell apples that did not need to look like shiny plastic apples, then maybe there would be less need for these chemicals.

Either way, my grandad would certainly not have agreed with spraying his apples, and certainly Richard and Darragh do not agree with using synthetic pesticides either, and we are grateful to be able to share their apples with you.

As always thank you for your support.

Kenneth

Just a ‘Touch of Roundup” and you will be grand…

by Kenneth Keavey

20 years ago, myself and my dad were out with two hoes dealing with the weeds on the vegetable ridges. It is worth being mindful this this was probably the height of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ boom and for two people to be out in a field weeding was as far from the reality of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ as you could get.

So it was, that an interested party came up to see what we were doing out there in the middle of the field, such an unusual sight at the time. A funny conversation ensued; it went something along the lines of:

Him: “What are you at there?”

Us: “We are weeding”

Him: “Why in the name of God are you doing that? It is an awful waste of time”

Us: “Well, if we don’t weed the crops, we won’t have any produce”

Him: “But Surely all you need is a TOUCH OF ROUNDUP”

All I can say that after this brief interchange, there was little in the way of mutual understanding shared on that particular day, in the end, in the nicest possible way we had to agree to disagree on our approach to weed control and I asked the man if he was not going to help us, to let us be as we had quite a bit of work to do.

There were many funny incidents in those first early days. We actually had the local Garda visit to investigate what mischievous plants we might be growing in our polytunnel one evening. To be fair to both protagonists above it is worth noting that a polytunnel in the west of Ireland would have been a thing of rare occurrence back in those days. Not so much anymore.

In fact, in the space of 20 years there has been a vigorous interest in growing our own food again, at least in the small-scale regenerative way. It seems sad to me that the opposite has happened to many of the larger conventional vegetable producers. 20 years ago, was just about when supermarkets started to take a very mercenary approach to dealing with many of the larger conventional growers in the country, and supermarkets have been instrumental in bringing the horticultural industry over the last two decades to its knees.

It is even sadder to think that the price of this destruction could be for as little as 5c on a head of celery.

It is funny too how supermarkets will fight for that 5c and squeeze the primary producer and at the same time post billions of euros in annual profit. But maybe we are all a little guilty of seeing food as a commodity that needs to be as cheap as possible?

Either way quite a bit has changed in the last 20 years, there are now only 60 commercial growers of field scale vegetables left in the country down from around 400 in 1998. But it is not all doom and gloom and there have been many new smaller scale organic and regenerative startups which shows that there is still an appetite for growing vegetables and doing it without chemicals.

As always thank you for your support, without which we would not be here today.

Kenneth

PS Thank you to everybody who has supported us through the summer. As we head into September and back to school, this is a time that is just as important for us as we have so many great crops from our farm and from our other farmers, and we need your support, what better time to get back into a routine with the very best Irish organic produce.

PPS We have opening currently for full time packing staff, if you would like to join our team please click here for more details.

Why is kale on the dirty dozen every single time?

by Kenneth Keavey

We were out spraying our crops this week, we were having problems with our sprayer, so I was out there with Brenda fixing the machine and ensuring it was working well. It struck me as I was down near the crops checking to ensure we were getting good leaf coverage with our spray that this is exactly what happens with toxic chemical sprays, they are applied, and they are sprayed directly onto the crops and are in some cases absorbed into the plants.

It was visually striking and although I have known this for years, it really hit me there in the field. We sprayed all our brassica plants that day with a mix of seaweed, boron, Epsoms salts and an herbal tonic.

At the time we were spraying black kale, funny thing is kale is a regular feature on the dirty dozen list, mindful that this is an American compiled list and there are so many more chemicals applied there compared to here in the EU, that doesn’t give us Europeans a free pass though.

Even so, for the life of me, why? Why spray kale? It used to be grown for cattle and is as hardy as vegetables come. We have been growing kale for 20 years and never had a disease problem. The only time we have an issue is with aphids, and that is after we leave the plants to go to flower, and they are exhausted at the end of a long season.

Chemicals that are absorbed into the food are called systemic, that means they penetrate the skin of the plant and get into its circulatory system, washing or rinsing does nothing to remove these chemicals.

You may note from the video that there are plenty of weeds in our fields, one of the most notable differences between organic and conventional agriculture is the absence of weeds. Weeds in conventional systems are managed generally starting with the ubiquitous spray of roundup followed by herbicides applied once the plants are in the ground. Then there is the fungicide and insecticide applications. All in all, whilst it is better in Ireland, the best way to avoid ingesting synthetic chemicals is to choose organic.

If you would like to know the chemical concoction you might find on your kale read on. Fungicides like, Difenoconazole, Boscalid, and Fludioxonil, insecticides such as Lamda-cyhalothrin, herbicides such as metazahlor, pendimethalin may be used, if you are in the US I am sure you can add a whole batch of more toxic chemicals to that list.

As the day went on, we got all our brassicas sprayed, I can only imagine the good the mix we applied is doing the plants, and I hope you can taste it in the flavour, freshness and richness of the produce coming off our fields and the fields of the other farmers that supply us.

Not only that, but I Saw a few bees fly though the spray and of course they flew on, no issue there, maybe it even did them some good, don’t think you could say the same for any synthetic chemical that might be sprayed.

As always thank you for your support.

Kenneth

PS Don’t forget to support our organic farm at this time of the year it makes all the difference to us and all the other organic farms and farmers that supply into us. Thank you. Kenneth

A Plea, can you help?

by Kenneth Keavey

We have had the best spring and start to summer that I remember in our 20 years of growing organic vegetables, it has been exceptional and I think we are in for a bumper harvest. I certainly feel we were due a break after the two dismal and depressing years just gone.

It is with some depression then that we face into mid July with the all too familiar vista of loads of produce and so few orders. We rely completely on individual orders each week and when our orders drop dramatically as they have done in the last couple of weeks it leaves us struggling.   

It is completely understandable, the weather has been good and we all deserve a break from our routines, couple that with many people taking a well deserved holiday and we have the perfect storm.

We have all the same costs week in week out, from packing to harvest -and the crops simply must be harvested when they are ready. We also have commitments to other Irish organic growers and when we don’t have orders this leaves us with difficult decisions.

The worst case is that our crops simply are left in the field to rot and this can be a very sad and real reality. This year we took a different approach to avoid this, in the hope that it might stimulate orders, we have given away over one thousand free freshly harvested farm harvested items over the last three week but it seems it has done very little, and the sad fact is we cannot afford to continue doing this.

There is the double depressing fact that we have spent the last six months working so hard to produce this amazing local Irish organic food that now we can’t sell it.

The farm this year so far is operating at a loss, the first six months of the year we incur most of the costs, and the latter six months are when you need to recoup the costs to keep the farm rolling. Last year we never recovered the costs, it was the worst year we have had, one bad year you can just about take, but two, that’s too much of a stretch.   

So this year, is the year to steady the ship to make enough to reinvest back in the farm to keep it running, and maybe if we are very lucky cover some of the losses from last year, it really is as simple as that.

With only 60 commercial vegetable farmers left in Ireland and against the continued loss leading of fresh produce by supermarkets you start to question whether after all the hard work it is worth it?

From my perspective this has always been a resounding yes because I believe in local food and growing food without chemicals and protecting biodiversity and paying people fairly, so it is a double depression to be facing this struggle of having the produce but not having the orders. Year by year it erodes my sense of commitment that earlier on was buffered by the endless energy of youth. I am tired.

We have I believe a decent business that promotes a positive and vital link to our food and our land.  I would ask you now if you can at all to support us and crucially over the next few weeks of the summer holidays as our pivotal harvest rolls in from our fields and the fields of other farmers to place an order and maybe avoid that odd supermarket purchase in favour of buying from us.

If you can I thank you. If you cannot I thank you for reading, engaging and spreading the word to others that may be able to support and help us, and I thank you for your good wishes and words and energy of encouragement which keeps us going through the tough and lean times.

Thank you.

Kenneth

Woes and Wonders…

by Kenneth Keavey

Do you ever feel like you are wading through thick treacle? And it seems like everywhere you look there is a problem waiting to be discovered? Welcome to this week on the farm, up and down we go with the waves of life, this week has been one giant wave, and I am wondering if we have reached the crest yet, I think we may have.

By all accounts we should be delighted, and to an extent I know that delight is there, I just can’t seem to access it right at the moment of writing this (we all know the blue sky is always there but mostly at least in this country we can’t see it!), as all those newly discovered problems seem to be overshadowing the good stuff and there actually is plenty of good stuff.

But before that the challenges. So let me start by saying I consistently make the mistake of reading comments by different people that organic farmers use chemicals, I think if I hear that “misinformation” again I will go out of my mind.

Of course we use chemicals. We use soil and water and air, all of which are made up of atoms and molecules that constitute chemicals, and there are natural elements in the soil, my Ph.D. in chemistry seems to be coming in useful at last. I think the insinuation is though we also use synthetic pesticides and insecticides and fungicides.

So how can I be any clearer, we don’t use synthetic man-made toxic chemicals, we simply don’t. Copper Sulphate may be used at times as a preventative for potato blight, but even if this was used, it is not systemic it is not absorbed into the plant, it is not on the potato.

Whereas Roundup is systemic, it gets absorbed into the plants when it is sprayed on them, like it is on cereals in certain countries, it stays in them, and it is toxic. Brand new research has shown that even at levels previously deemed safe it has been shown to cause cancer in animals. (link here https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-025-01187-2)

Then there have been the practical challenges, with system malfunctions, and breakdowns of cold-rooms, and poor plants that we can’t transplant, and having fewer orders due to holidays and loads of harvest and not being able to sell it to support the farm, and general this and that issues.  When all these challenges come all together, they can on some days be too much.

On the other hand, we have in fact got amazing crops this year, the best cucumbers I have ever seen on our farm, and so much more besides. So much so that we are giving away 500 free portions of something next week, a surprise to 500 people chosen at random, so keep an eye out it will say “free from our farm”.

We get to work on the land doing something that is truly worthwhile, producing and selling good quality healthy organic food that is improving our planet and hopefully helping humankind be just a little bit better.  We cannot do that without you, your support keeps us in business, keeps the tractors rolling and the bees buzzing, so as always, a heartfelt thank you.

I hope this pouring forth of my woes for the week was not too much.

As always thank you for your ongoing help and support.

Kenneth

PS Every week you order with us over the summer makes a big difference as many people are taking a well-deserved holiday and this makes keeping all the plates spinning that bit harder here.

After many weeks of planning, we are finally ready to start

by Kenneth Keavey

Rumi said, “As you start to walk on the way, the way appears” Clarity doesn’t come before action, it comes from action. After many weeks of planning, we are finally ready to start.

This business that we find ourselves in, seems to always be grinding away at one’s soul, it is hard.

Growing vegetables commercially is hard, growing vegetables without chemicals is harder, and selling produce as a small business might even be harder still. But at other times like the week just gone when the sun shines and the birds sing and the bees finally wake up from their winter slumber, it gives back.

Sometimes it is hard to get perspective especially when you are in the thick of things and we all make mistakes. Anyway, amidst the usual weekly turmoil something stuck me, you can’t do it on your own, life, business, relationships, you need help and support.

I am grateful for the team of individuals (and this includes you our customers) that have chosen to pitch in with us, without them it would be a very different affair, but because of them and their dedication we have an amazing, vibrant, sustainable business.

Collaboration is key, it has always been something we have stuck by, and I am not saying I or we are perfect, far from it, and there is plenty of times when stress or general goings on means we miss the boat, we say or do things which would have been better not said or not done. But fair collaboration is what in an ideal world we strive for, whether that be with our customers or suppliers or anybody who touches on our business, collaboration I’d go so far as to say it is the only way.

During the past number of months, I have had the fortunate experience to begin a conversation with Liam Gavin from Drumanilra farm, he also runs Carraig Rua bakery. The aim of our conversations was to get the best most amazing, sustainable, organic, slow fermented over 48 hours bread to you, our customers. There has been much back and forth and trials and finally we have arrived at a place where we are happy and are ready to start.

It is something I have wanted to do for years, but getting fresh bread to you our customers in our business is difficult, but we think we have cracked the art of getting bakery fresh bread delivered to your home. The bread is par-baked and 15 minutes in your oven will finish the bread and give you the most amazing experience of fresh bread right in your own home.

There are all the other amazing bits, it is baked by an expert baker Michael, in Carrick on Shannon, by Liam’s ethical organic business, and it uses only certified organic flour. It has, as bread should have only 4 ingredients and critically the wheat has obviously been grown without pesticides or herbicides and especially without glyphosate.

Our aim has always been to partner and support other small amazing Irish organic farms and businesses, and I think with Carraig Rua we have definitely done that.

As always thanks for your support and joining us in creating a new better sustainable food system.

Kenneth

A note from Kenneth

by Kenneth Keavey

Supermarkets won’t miss you, but we will! Our orders always drop off over Easter and school holidays, but we still have the same costs to bear for running the farm and the business. Your order means a lot to us and makes all the difference. It allows us to keep doing what we are doing and developing a more sustainable food network and farming approach to food in Ireland.

Please if you can at all support us over the next three weeks through the Easter break. To help you on this journey we have some very special and gorgeous hand-made organic chocolate to give away for free when you purchase and spend over €80. You will receive an email this Sunday 6th April with details of the offer.

Easter is without a doubt the biggest and most consistent downturn we see in the business each year and we need to do whatever we can to ensure we do try to mitigate it.

Thank you from all of us here at Green Earth Organics.

The hidden cost of our food

We are lucky living in Europe we have some of the best laws protecting our lands and our food from pesticide contamination. But it’s worth bearing in mind a couple of things, even though these laws are stronger than in many parts of the planet, chemicals and pesticides are still used regularly on our fresh food and veg. A report by the dept of Agriculture right here in Ireland showed that over 64% of 500 fruit samples tested in 2021 had pesticide residues in them.

But the thing that really gets me is the hidden contribution our food choices here in Ireland make to pesticide use all around the world. Just this March the environmental protection agency in Brazil banned the use of thiamethoxam, this is a pesticide of the class of neonicotinoid, and 1 teaspoon of this insidious chemical can kill over 1 billion bees. The bees are the sentinels, and if the bees are dying so are all the other insects. The companies that manufacture this, denied for years, that it was dangerous to pollinators, but they knew.

This chemical continues to be manufactured right here in the EU and shipped to other countries, making billions, knowing that these chemicals are wrecking destruction on our natural environment. Making profit is the only driver when it comes to large food companies and large Agri companies. Our health and the health of the planet are always secondary to the bottom line.

But an often-overlooked fact, the feed fed to Chickens, cows, and pigs that are processed for meat right here in this country will be partly fed on soya grown in Brazil. 100,000s of tonnes of GMO (Genetically modified) soya-based feed is imported into Ireland every year. (Read more here) Our massive agricultural industry is fed on a diet of Roundup drenched, neonicotinoid-soaked soya pellets that feed the animals.

If you would like to know more, please have a look at this video

This feed of course is also coming from massive monocultural food deserts that have been created by the relentless destruction of the most diverse and amazing part of our planet: the Amazon rainforest. This also contributes to the most defining catastrophe of our age: the climate crisis.

It’s estimated that over 20 million hectares of Brazil’s forest cover as a whole have been lost to soy production in the last three decades.  Irish supermarkets have not ruled out using controversially sourced soy that is linked to activity driving forest loss in South America, including the Amazon.

But when it comes to our food we as consumers have power, real power and our decisions and choices can have a massive impact, and can send a real message and can effect real change.

Choosing organic will prohibit the use of these bee harming chemicals and it will also ensure we are not consuming GMOs.

As always thank you for your support.

Kenneth

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

by Kenneth Keavey

Recently on a well-known Radio Talk show a nutritionist claimed that “it is a myth that organic produce does not have pesticides on them….. and some studies show that organic produce has higher levels of pesticides.” in addition she claimed that there was no benefit to eating organic produce. I have to say having dedicated 20 years to growing organically and having come out of a career in chemistry I would like to dispute both facts and there are clear scientific studies that demonstrate that both statements are false.

It was Leondardo Da Vinci who said: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” and farming organically is simplicity in action, and a key principle is working with nature without the use of “pesticides” to treat weeds, or the little critters that eat our vegetables every now and then.

That being said, there is a list of approved substances that can be used in organic farming if an issue persists. But on this list, you will find things like neem oil, beeswax, mineral oils, paraffin, soap, mint oil, clove oil, and an insecticide, pyrethrum (which is extracted from the chrysanthemum flower) and such natural elements as sulphur and copper, the latter both used as traditional methods to control fungus. It is important to highlight that generally a derogation must be requested to use any of the last three on the list, and they will only be used where there is little other choice.

In 2021 the Department of agriculture tested 1,039 fruit and vegetable samples for a staggering 474 chemicals (synthetic chemicals manufactured in a chemical plant, with labels such as toxic, irritant, carcinogen and more)

For fruit, of the 528 tested, 63.8% had pesticide residues detected, 5.5% had residues detected above the MRL (the maximum residue limit, this is the limit that is deemed safe for human consumption, personally and this is my opinion I would prefer to avoid these chemicals in my food entirely if possible).

3 fruits contained a cocktail of 9 different pesticides in them.

For veg, of the 511 tested, 43.6% had residues detected, 5.1% had residues detected above the MRL. A cocktail of 15 pesticides were found in one sample.

And if you were still unsure about whether non-organic produce is no different to conventional go and visit Tesco’s website and check out fresh oranges with the following details:

NOT SUITABLE FOR VEGANS Post Harvest Treatments & wax by Country of Origin: Spain: Imazalil/Thiabendazole/Pyrimethanil & Wax E914, E904 Israel: Imazalil/Thiabendazole/Orthophenylphenol & Wax E914, E904 Morocco: Propiconazole/Pyrimethanil/Imazalil & Wax E914, E904 Egypt: Imazalil/Thiabendazole & Wax E904, E914 Peru: Imazalil/Orthophenylphenol/Thiabendazole & Wax E903, E904 RSA: 2,4 D/Imazalil/Thiabendazole & Wax E914, E904 Chile: Imazalil/Fludioxonil/Pirimethanyl & Wax E903, E904

I get it though and the fact remains that it is certainly better to be eating fresh fruit and vegetables that much of the Ultra processed food that line supermarket shelves.

But if you wish to limit your exposure to pesticides in your fresh food which were found in over 50% of veg and over 60% of fruit then organic is the clear choice.

And finally in 2015 one of the most comprehensively undertaken studies showed

“……that the evidence from this study is overwhelming – that organic food is higher in antioxidants and lower in toxic metals and pesticides.

So please if you are going to make general sweeping comments such as “there is more pesticides found in organic produce, and it is no better for you” on national radio please get your facts straight.

As always thank you for your support.

Kenneth