The dirty dozen and the clean fifteen

Breaking with tradition, I am about to write something slightly useful. If you know me, you'll know that I am quite critical of 'organic food'... especially as as brand. You might as well just say organic=gentrified, there are exceptions however and it is the classic confused issue.

For those of you un-initiated, organic food is food grown without the use of pesticides or synthetic fertilisers. How this is defined is very broad and as such I believe it is a fallacy to say it is always a better choice. A very obvious example: Tayside strawberries (conventional) vs organic strawberries from California. You may be faced with this choice at Tesco. Clearly the local berries will taste better and given good managment might also be better for the environment than ones grown under organic husbandry with irrigation in 45 degree heat somewhere in California.

It gets more complicated, I could go on.

Anyway, I found a nice little summary, American, but could likely be applied to the UK and elsewhere.

http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods

I'll summarise [my notes in square brackets]:

12 Foods You Should Probably Buy Organic

1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Sweet Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Kale [umm, who eats this stuff?]
9. Leafy Greens
10. Grapes
11. Carrots [not sure if applies as much in the UK]
12. Pears
[13. Bananas - this should be number 1]

[Having applied many a pesticide myself, I would think most of these are obvious. Fruit and veg that come in to contact with the spray itself and have a porous skin are going to be most likely to absorb the chemical.]

15 Foods You Can Probably Buy Normal

1. Onion
2. Avocado
3. Sweet Corn
4. Pineapple
5. Mango
6. Asparagus
7. Peas
8. Kiwi
9. Cabbage
10. Eggplant [Aubergine]
11. Papaya
12. Watermelon [wow, water in melon form!]
13. Broccoli
14. Tomato [aside from the fact it'll probably taste awful]
15. Sweet Potato

Well, there you go... if you are concered about pesticide residues, that's some good advice. However, I think that you would do far better to just educate yourself and think a bit. A good clue is often place of origin. If they come from a country where bribes form a substantial part of the GDP, you might want to think twice (okay, well we have to exclude Italy, where even the mafia wouldn't accept a bribe to allow bad food). Also, think about where you are getting the food. Really great food often goes bad quickly, so learn how to bottle!

USA-miable

I've always had a pleasant ambivalence with respect to the nuts-and-bolts details of American politics. That is except when their system generates something interesting to me, the past eight years offering a notable gap.

Given my chronic scepticism toward spin-related politicking, I find myself being mildly impressed on at least a fortnightly basis with the new President. Even on issues where his decisions may not be in line with my views, it seems that there is surprisingly fresh level of thoughtfulness exhibited.

Anyway, on to what matters: food. This blog has details Mr Obama's interactions with food on many levels. It even has recipes!!

http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/