Chemical Laden Vegetables and Fruits

My hubby's family are involved in plantation, so they are very familiar with how vegetables and fruits are grown and how farmers use pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers. I never take much attention to this issue until recently my hubby told me how commercial farmers load their products with pesticides and chemical fertilisers.

Taking one example, most farmers will encounter red-mite which will cause red rusty dots on vegetables. This is very unappealing to ignorant customers (like most of us) and due to pressure to get a good selling price, farmers will spray pesticides on their farm every few days. When my hubby showed me pesticides that farmers normally use, I told him there is a note on the bottle warning farmers to pick the vegetables and fruits one week after applying pesticides.

My hubby says it is impossible because the life cycle of a red-mite is shorter than one week. Farmers have to apply pesticides every few days even before harvesting otherwise their vegetables start to have rusty dots.

So next time when you buy vegetables, remember the more perfect looking vegetables that you are selecting, the more pesticides have been applied just before they are harvested. Choosing slightly imperfect looking vegetables will be better for your health. We are not marrying the vegetables anyway!

The other option is to buy organic vegetables (which is not financially feasible for most people) or plant some vegetables on your own. I will be posting some vegatables that we plant on our vegetable patch in coming posts.