After our investigationย revealed just how much dangerous pesticides it takes to grow strawberries, many people wrote to us saying they would start buying organic.
But even that wonโt fully address the problem: When they are starting out, organic strawberry plants are grown with the help of fumigants, the hard-to-control class of pesticides that have been linked to cancer, developmental problems and the hole in the ozone layer.
Strawberries donโt grow up where they are born. They get their start in nurseries in inland Northern California before being shipped south in an effort to mimic natural progression of winter to spring. They finish their lifespan along the California coast in places such as Monterey and Ventura counties.
Regardless of whether one of these baby plants โ known as starts โ ends up on a conventional or organic farm, the nursery soil is pumped with fumigants to eradicate the pests and diseases that can haunt strawberry farmers.
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If theyโre matured on an organic farm, these strawberries still can be certified organic.
Even if you do buy conventional strawberries, thereโs no risk of ingesting fumigants. The soil is treated, not the fruit or plants themselves, so you wonโt find leftover fumigants on your fruit. The risk with fumigants is to the farmworkers who apply them and the people who live nearby and might be exposed to drifting gas.
Read full, original article: Even organic strawberries are grown with dangerous pesticides
