Greenpeace Says Chinese Vegetables Tainted With Pesticides From China Retail News (emphasis mine)
Greenpeace recently published a report on pesticide residues in vegetables and fruit in China, which shows five kinds of fruit and vegetables contained extremely poisonous pesticide and produce sold in supermarkets contain higher level of pesticide residue than those sold in agricultural markets.
From December 2008 to February 2009, Greenpeace bought 15 commonly-eaten fruit and vegetable samples from agricultural markets and the supermarkets Wal-Mart, Vanguard, Lotus, and Nonggongshang, in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou respectively, and sent all 45 samples of fruits and vegetables to an independent laboratory in Qingdao for testing. The results show that only five samples out of the total 45 contained no pesticides and over 50 different kinds of pesticides were identified on the rest.
What is surprising is that Greenpeace found that the fruit and vegetables from big name supermarkets such as Lotus, Vanguard and Wal-Mart were even more polluted than those collected from the wet markets.
Greenpeace said a strawberry sample it took from Wal-Mart Beijing Xuanwu Store and a cucumber sample from Guangzhou’s Vanguard each contained more than 13 kinds of pesticide. Greenpeace said eating these fruit and vegetable would be just like drinking a cup of poisonous cocktail. In addition, some food samples have been found to contain pesticides deemed by the World Health Organization as extremely toxic. Greenpeace said that in shepherd’s purse and cowpea samples bought from Lotus Supermarket in Shanghai, there were traces the highly toxic pesticides methamidophos and carbonfuran which are banned from sale and use by the Chinese government.
Greenpeace’s findings suggest that pesticide contamination on food is nationwide problem in China.
I guess it is a good thing nearly all our fruits and vegetables come from little old ladies on the side of the road…
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
yep.
I actually try not to think too much about it… but this article was a little shocking!
Me too… Especially with the four kids. It really is just out of your hands sometimes. I don’t go to the grocery stores because a.) too expensive and b.)too many people try to mob my children like little celebrities. It’s hard to escape from those narrow isles…
Am now glad that I go to the little old ladies.
I was going to ask you how you managed grocery shopping with 4 kids! I wouldn’t want to go there either. Aunties on the sidewalk are so much more fun anyway, right? When are you back in Shijiazhuang?
We’ll be back in just over two weeks. Am almost all packed and ready to go. Rod will have time to accompany us on the plane, but will have to leave within 48 hours of landing. Must admit that I’m a little concerned about how I’m going to manage… Recently, the way I’ve dealt with grocery shopping has been to send Rod into the lion’s den with a list.
Sidewalk Aunties are definitely more fun.
Did I really need to know this? Yikes… more to worry about.
Yea, I think I was better off not knowing!