Apples are full of vitamins and minerals – every child is taught that. But in addition to the health-promoting ingredients, Greenpeace has now also found a number of different pesticides in the conventional apple harvest.
Greenpeace tests fruit
The environmental organization Greenpeace took a closer look at conventional apples from eleven European countries and tested them for their pesticide content. On the German market, 33 conventional apple samples and six apples from organic cultivation were examined. The samples for the German apples from 2015 were taken from Aldi, Alnatura, Basic, Edeka, Metro, Lidl, and Rewe.
The result
The sobering result of the study shows that no pesticide residues could be detected in only four of the conventional samples. The apples from the organic range, on the other hand, were completely unpolluted. Although the measured values found were all below the legally permissible maximum amounts, they are not entirely harmless.
In its study, Greenpeace was able to detect up to seven different active ingredients in just one apple. So far, however, little is known about the interactions between the various pesticides.
Is there a pesticide tax now?
“Retailers, politicians, and producers must work together to reduce the use of toxins,” demands environmental scientist Christiane Huxdorff. According to the Greenpeace agriculture expert, one way of restricting spraying with poison in conventional fruit cultivation is a corresponding tax on pesticides.
The calculation is simple: the more expensive the pesticides, the less they are used. The cultivation of organic food already shows that spraying fruit and vegetables is not necessary at all. A rethink is urgently needed here.
