Have your Corn-and-Pesticide-Free Strawberry Shortcake…and Eat it Too!
It’s strawberry season, at least for those of us who live in the temperate western or southern regions of the United States. But before you rush out to snatch up a flat of the sweet-smelling jewels from the stand on the corner, keep in mind that strawberries rank sixth on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen, a list of the twelve most-contaminated fruits and vegetables. Researchers found a total of thirty-eight pesticides on all the strawberries tested–up to eight different pesticides on a single strawberry alone. And despite the widespread publicity a few years ago regarding the phase out of methyl bromide, it is still being used on strawberries under critical-use exemptions.
