Food

Dearly beloved we are gathered today to talk about some things called nuts

Aug

17

"Are we gonna let de-elevator Bring us down? Oh, no Let's Go! Let's go crazy, Let's get nuts, Let's look 4 the organic peanuts 'Til they put us in the truck, let's go!"

Now that we've got Prince stuck in your head let's talk about peanuts that won't put us on that truck so fast. Conventional peanuts ought to be on the dirty dozen list because of the large amount of pesticides affiliated with their production. Peanuts are often in crop rotation with cotton which is sprayed with harsh chemicals like Lindane and Aldicarb both of which are major carcinogens.
Cotton is the most heavily sprayed crop in the world - one pound of cotton has been sprayed with an average of 1 3/4 pounds of pesticide! Did you know that because cotton depletes the soil so extremely, that nitrogen fixing plants such as soybeans and peanuts are used to help recondition the soil and to fix nitrogen? You can probably guess what happens to these nitrogen fixers as they grow on the plot previously planted with the chemical laden cotton. They end up in your food and in your watershed! As a matter of fact, non-organic peanuts are among the highest in pesticide residuals. Make sure you look for organic peanut butter, as well as organic soybeans, whenever possible.
Organic pioneer Shirley Daughtry is pursuing organics to make Georgia healthier. She grew up in a top peanut producing county in Georgia and saw many neighbors and family members die of cancer, which she attributes mostly to pesticide exposure. With the state’s extensive peanut acreage, “if we can change peanut production in Georgia, think of what the environmental and health benefits would be.”


Comments

Sign Up to add comments

The fact that the FDA allows non-organic peanuts to be grown as they are is in itself appalling. Cotton is fairly well cleansed of pesticide reside as it is processed (I do not mean to condone non-organic cotton, only to state that its immediate health effects to wearers is small), but peanuts cannot be cleansed of the pesticides that are incorporated into the "nut" (in quotes since it is really a legume).