How do I buy food in the US that I know hasn't been exposed to such pesticides?
Also, the truly horrible aspect of this is how persistent these endocrine-disrupting chemicals are, and how they bioaccumulate up the food chain. And not just in the environment, but also in our bodies. In particular, in our fat, given that they're for the most part lipophylic.
Even worse, they're persistent across generations. I recall estimates that, for some compounds, mothers' milk accounts for ~20% of total lifetime exposure. We have indeed been well and truly fucked.
Interestingly enough, something similar came up when we were looking for car seats for the first time, years ago. We were trying to limit flame retardants, which was(is still?) almost impossible. The best we could do was contact manufacturers and ask them what they used and how the fabric is made and flame retardant applied. At the time there was one pretty new, really expensive car seat company that basically implied that their car seats had no flame retardant at all, which wasn't true because otherwise they would not meet standards, and a bunch of popular bloggers and (at least minor) celebrities were promoting it as chemical-free, when it really, really wasn't.
In the end we found one brand that was OEKO-TEX certified and actually told us what they used and how they used it, which was about the best we could hope to get.
How many people know what pesticides their organic foods/producers use? I hardly know, and I care about this stuff more than just about anyone I know.
Are they selling a vacuum? What could that phrase possibly mean with regards to baryonic matter?
Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize.¹
Toxin-free. Poison-free. Dye-free. Fragrance-free.
This is the vernacular usage of "chemical free" in the US.
Artificial toxin/poison/dye/fragrance-free. You can shove as much naturally occurring toxins in the product as you like, and both marketers and regular people will agree it's "chemical-free".
And that's side-stepping the whole "artificial" vs. "natural" nonsense. 'spacehome may be pedantic in this context, but in general, he's right - regular people have their model of the world ridiculously out of sync with reality. Which is of course readily exploited by advertisers selling "chemical free", "natural", "organic" products, which are no better (and sometimes worse) than the "artificial" ones, but still command a premium price.
I have been excited that CA is reversing on flame retardants. It was hard to find certain kinds of furniture without flame retardants. Every kind of kids pajamas that relatives gave as gifts had flame retardants. I don't remember about strollers for sure, but it seems like even many strollers had it, but that could be wrong.
Instead they use higher quantities of different nasty, outdated chemicals that were grandfathered. Repeated studies show that eating organic does not change the amount of pesticides found in consumers' blood. Organic food is not healthier.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/the-truth-abou...
But, I gather there is some further link between food -> blood level traces that you're actually talking about. Do you have a good link on how that study was performed?
I found the program online. Didn't need any special contacts or anything.
The fixed costs of an on-farm slaughter building or mobile slaughter truck are comparable to the facility that processes thousands of animals per hour, but spread out among fewer animals. If you want it cheaper, best be prepared buy live and do the slaughter and butchering yourself, and plan some meals around organ meats. Or there are independent butchers that will chop up any dead thing you care to bring to them, that are a necessary convenience for hunters that want to fill a chest freezer with venison every November. They can do cows and chickens, too. They aren't picky. But not all of them are able to do the slaughtering part.
Vegetable prices, I just don't get. If I am coming to your farm stand and taking the cabbage away still covered in mud and slugs, what exactly am I paying extra for? How is it that the veg farmer can't beat the grocery store price?
"Look, you don't have to bother with petty sales 1 kilo here, 2 kilos there and waste your whole day/pay somebody else to do the sales, I'll take 10 tonnes but for 30% of your normal price - look at this pile of money, it can be yours now!"
Also, they don't always pay someone to do sales. A lot of farm stands have honor boxes, Or they do pre-paid farm shares and just deliver to a drop-off point. There are a lot of ways for veg farmers to get paid directly for their produce, and they are all somehow less convenient and more expensive than going to a grocery store. Do they just not go to Kroger or Publix or Piggly Wiggly or wherever to see what they have to beat?
(this for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphenol_A )
As an added bonus, farmers' markets tend to be cheaper than supermarkets even as the food is better. It mystifies me that they aren't more commonly used and have a reputation as being for rich hipsters (i.e., like Whole Foods).
Edit: think of “USDA Organic” label as more of an industry marketing gimmick that allows them to triple prices, than any genuine intent to produce safer foods.
Are there many farmers markets open for the second shift worker getting off at, say, 10pm?
I guess a large chunk of people are able to make one or the other, but it also won't work all that well as an only source of produce.
the alemany farmers market is also similar in terms of cost and availability of produce. not too hard to avoid the ferry building and fort mason type hipster farmers markets :) not as easy as the markets in terms of hours/access, but...
And even if they do sell their own produce, who knows where they're growing it, or if they've had the soil tested for contaminants, or if they're being honest about pesticides and fertilizers.
I used to get a box of produce from an organic farm that I trusted completely and that I'd visited in person on several occasions. Without that level of transparency (which is available in many places if you look for it) you're going to have a harder time.