Sorry but DDT is still very commonly used in latin american countries. Its not only a Mexico thing. I was in Ecuador a few years back on a university research and was suprised all the pesticide they use is 99.9 DDT based. Even household bug spray sold there was 99.9 DDT. I was in Salango, and everynight we had a swarm of the weirdest brown crickets show up everywhere, thousands. The DDT did not seem to bother them or kill them. They had become resistant to it.
But you had many kids born with defects where the parents used the product at work.

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Claudia, please keep in mind that in Mexico DDT is not banned. If you don't know what DDT is look it up. The US banned it years ago because it is a very high cancer causing pesticide. I never buy fruits or veggies from Mexico.

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I'm highly surprised about the "mexican" cantaloupe... can we be in front of another acusation such as salmonella in mexican tomatoes, and then on other mexican products? I would like to see the "pesticide free" label on US cantaloupe... sorry, but I'm mexican!

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Hey very great info, My choice will be changing from now.

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This is great information that I find valuable, because these items I find in my grocery cart all the time, however, I do buy lots of organics, but sometimes I skimp on some of these above mentioned food items and purchase non organic. I always had this feeling that I should not skimp, but did it anyway. Now I know. THANK YOU!

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Please bare in mind that the amount of chemicals (pesticides, fertilizers, herbicides etc) vary not only from one type of food to another, but greatly from one climate area to another even for the same plant. I used to work in a conventional citrus orchard in the Arava dessert (before going organic). I once attended a course in pesticizing with growers from all over the south of Israel, including the Sderot Area (long before the Palestinians started firing rockets) which is closer to the shore. I was shocked at the amount of pesticides they sprayed, because we needed much less.
A few years later I gradually went organic, I live up north and buy only organic produce, most of it local.
After giving up soft drinks, most sweets, most milk products and all junk foods its no more expensive than buying conventional friuts & veggies and staying on all the non-healthy stuff.

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You are what you eat?!

I'm a vegetarian...does that mean...I'm a vegetable? :D Hahaha! Well, on occasion, I do become a couch potato. ;)
Love & Peace

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Ann,
I understand your sentiments, but -having- the variety that we have gives us the opportunity to make responsible choices. Having choice is a blessing, and how we use it shows a lot about how committed we are to doing our part to heal ourselves and our planet.

Throwing our hands up and just saying "whatever" won't make use of the wonderful opportunity that we've been given to make strong, positive choices and to offer ourselves as "torchlighters" for finding out how to improve health not only for ourselves, but for our communities and our world.

Sure, it may be some extra trouble to hunt and pick for the best food, and to search out the best methods for retaining nutrients in food, but that may be our task for this lifetime -- to re-learn how to feed ourselves and others to truly nourish ourselves, body, mind, spirit, and soul.

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Why always worry. Why don't we just have a glass of water to replace a meal. It would do us all good. My comment shows you that I am fed up with this whole issue. Considering how many millions of people go without food every day. I think we all should just try to do our best.

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"Organic" is becoming another bit of marketing fluff. While there are still some standards for how the plant is grown, a plant's nutritional value isn't measured just by how it is grown -- it is also measured by the state of the plant (health) when the produce is picked, how long it is stored before sale, whether it is ripe when picked, etc... Here are the criteria I use for produce:

1. Grow your own and pick fresh from the plant.
2. Buy local and sustainably grown (foods will be picked when ripe and full of nutrients, and will be grown without harmful additives)
3. Buy local and conventional from small family farmers (believe it or not, conventionally grown foods from small family farmers may be higher in nutrients than imported organic counterparts!)
4. Buy organic (if you can't get locally grown, buying imported organic still gives the best chance of getting some valuable nutrients without a lot of toxic background.)

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