Chemical Free Veg Means Actually Chemical Free! đź’š
We hope you had a good Monday and enjoyed the email we sent yesterday on the nutrients in local veg vs supermarket veg. If you missed it, do jump back in your inbox and have a read. Or you can read it all here: https://fanfield.farm/veg-can-lose-over-50-of-its-nutrients-in-5-days/
Today we want to talk to you about another passion of ours in ensuring good quality food, and that is the chemicals used when producing vegetables that need shipping far and wide, that aren’t organic, and those that are grown in such a way that they need chemical fertilisers or pesticides to grow.
You don’t have to do much googling to find out that a pesticide created by the now known company Bayer called Zyklon-B was used in the horrific gas chambers in the Second World War. Whilst this exact chemical is no longer used in the UK, it shares many similar qualities to Glyphosate… You may know it better as “Roundup”.
Many studies have shown that whilst Zyklon-B was a very immediate killer in the doses it was used, the residual traces of Glyphosate in our foods has been labelled the “slow killing poison for humans”.
Dr. Pamela Coleman (Ph.D, a farm and food policy analyst) highlighted in a recent report:
“Contrary to the current widely-held misconception that glyphosate is relatively harmless to humans, the available evidence shows that glyphosate may rather be the most important factor in the development of multiple chronic diseases and conditions that have become prevalent in Westernised societies”
Not only is Glyphosate shown to be causing problems to humans it is also destroying bee populations, and we all know without the bees we won’t last long either. The use of it is also a never ending cycle as the product kills beneficial insects that would naturally, over-time, slow down the insects that Glyphosate is set out to kill each year.
So the natural solution, and one we do recommend in the first instance, is to go organic. But did you know that organic supermarket foods can also include chemicals in their growing methods. Whilst these are much better for you than non-organic fruit or veg, there are still “approved” chemical fertilisers and pesticides that can be used under some organic certification methods.
Regenerative farms or chemical-free farms do not use any chemicals at all. Instead of chemical fertilisers we use crop rotation and nature to put natural fertiliser back into the soil. We make sure to not take more than we put back each year, along with promoting nature and encouraging as many species back to the farm we don’t need to use pesticides as the natural eco-system returns and “pests” are taken care of by other natural predators.
Yesterday we spoke about the freshness of veg and how quickly it is delivered after harvesting, this means local farms do not need any chemicals to preserve their produce. They do not need to wash in chlorine or insert gasses into salad bags to ensure longer shelf life.
A recent study showed that over 80% of the US population has traces of Glyphosate in their body, and that number won’t be much different in the UK. However it doesn’t have to be that way… eating chemical-free veg from local growers can ensure that your produce does not have chemicals in them. Knowing your local farmer is the best way to ensure that you know what you are putting in to your body.
If you want to find out more about our veg boxes then please head over here: https://fanfield.farm/east-sussex-veg-boxes/
Tomorrow we will look at something that often concerns people about veg box schemes and something that has become a recent passion of ours as the cost of living increases and that is the price of local veg. Make sure to look out for that email, it may just shock you.
Thank you again for reading and supporting our journey, and sharing our passion.
Best Wishes,
Chris and Emily
– Fanfield Farm