Barney & Clyde by Gene Weingarten; Dan Weingarten & David Clark for March 12, 2021

Bacteria are “organic”.

Dirt, slugs and manure ARE organic.

All vegetables are organic

Some of them are just more pretentious about it

It depends on the size of the print. The warning on her father’s products are written in 2 point type.

In our household we have always washed the produce bought and brought in the house, and this action predates the current COVID crisis by 30 years or more. We actually try to clean all things bought after bringing them into the house and before putting them away. A good but time consuming habit.

The safe products seem to have a lot of warnings on them.

Reality BITES, huh?

You do know what organic products primary fertilizer is don’t you. It usually comes brom the back end of animals.

I once watched a man with a whole raw chicken in one hand selecting peaches. He transferred the chicken from hand to hand and at one point put chicken on pile of peaches. Produce gets handles a lot before you buy it. Wash everything.

Organic produce has a much higher rate of E Coli than standard produce because, instead of using nice clean chemical fertilizers, they use manure.Wash everything.

Even if they are advertised as prewashed, soak them and see the dirt in the sink…..

My mom says farmworkers pee in the fields, and that’s enough reason to wash every time.

They have been handled by numerous people, and come in contact with surfaces, all of which my contain some kind of toxin. From cleaning chemicals to bacteria.

People misunderstand organic. It just means that certain pest control practices and fertilizers can’t be used — others certainly can and are. There’s just as much reason to wash organic produce as there is other kinds of produce.

Plus, if you check the labels, a lot of organic produce comes in from abroad, and the USDA essentially takes their word for it. So, imagine you are an official in CountryX. If you certify produce as organic, you please the farmer right in front of you, who may live in your town. That farmer gets more money, therefore, from those rich people far, far away in America. There’s an obvious incentive to give that farmer every benefit of the doubt.

Of course it is 100% organic, it is celery!

I was a teenager the first time I found a LIVE bug in the veggies – it was not the last time. Please wash your produce.