M8.3 Blog Pesticides Submit Assignment

Last night I had left overs from a birthday party earlier in the day. My meal consisted of iceberg lettuce salad with olive oil, beef stew with carrots and potatoes. The first food item I looked at was carrots. I am not surprised that carrots returned with 26 pesticide residues found. It's human health effects are known and probable carcinogens, suspected hormone disruptors, neurotoxins, developmental and reproductive toxins and environmental disruptors such as honeybee toxins. The pesticide commonly found was Linuron at 70.7% and the least common pesticide found in carrots is Dieldrin at 0.1%. When searching potatoes I found there are 35 pesticide residues which again is not surprising. Commonly has the same human and environmental effects as carrots. The pesticide with the highest percentage found was Chlorpropham at 80.2% and least pesticide found was Carbaryl at 0.1%. The next food I looked at was lettuce. Iceberg lettuce was not an option but lettuce is lettuce  and not surprised results yield 52 pesticide residues were found. The highest percentage of pesticide found was Imidacloprid at 36.5% and least was Diazinon at 0.1%; has the same health and environmental effects are the previous two vegetables. The last food item I looked at was beef. It contains 6 pesticides with the same health environmental effects besides neurotoxins. The common pesticide that came out of beef was DDE p,p' at 6.8% and the least common being Cyfluthrin at 0.3%. After reviewing the foods I ate yesterday it is safe to say that our foods are highly contaminated with  pesticides that have names we cannot pronounce nor know how they effect the human body. In terms related to public health I feel we can do more to eliminate and advocate that these carcinogens cause more harm than good. Of course we know agriculture needs these to protect produce; but to what extent is it okay to put farmers and consumers lives at risk?