I’d been curious for a while about levels of chemicals in foods, and I finally got around to researching it.

I was suprised to find some really good info. Foodnews has a good report on the amount of chemicals found on produce and ranks them. I was suprised at some of the results. For example, potatos are really high but brocolli is low. Intuitively I would have assumed the opposite, for some reason.

But, they don’t recommend not buying the ones that are high. They suggest buying those organic when possible.

Links:
Food News
Food Watch
Canadian Organic Growers

I still have not seen definitive proof that chemicals and hormones in food are harmful, but I think a lot of people are becoming concerned. This is shown by the fact that apparently Organic food retailing is the highest growing sector of the industry at over 20% per year. That said, it’s still definitely a niche market, and I don’t think there’s any threat of it becoming close to the majority. I also don’t think government should be forcing industries towards organic, BUT I do think retailers should be able to label appropriately when they are organic so consumers have the choice. (There have been cases in the US where retailers have not been allowed to label as such: Labelling restrictions)