The Market is Open!

Dear ALFN Members,

I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend. If you were at pick-up yesterday, you may have noticed that we crossed a tipping point into spring production. Fresh strawberries have arrived! The market is open for another week of spring bounty.

An ALFN member reminded me yesterday that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has their new list of the Dirty Dozen out for 2016. The list ranks produce that has the highest amount of pesticide residues still on the product. The list is helpful to have on your phone as you shop for products in box stores. EWG also has a list of the top clean products. Here is a summary of the two lists from their website:

Dirty Dozen

• More than 98 percent of strawberry samples, peaches, nectarines, and apples tested positive for at least one pesticide residue.
• The average potato had more pesticides by weight than any other produce.
• A single grape sample and a sweet bell pepper sample contained 15 pesticides.
• Single samples of strawberries showed 17 different pesticides.

Clean Fifteen

• Avocados were the cleanest: only 1 percent of avocado samples showed any detectable pesticides.
• Some 89 percent of pineapples, 81 percent of papayas, 78 percent of mangoes, 73 percent of kiwi and 62 percent of cantaloupes had no residues.
• No single fruit sample from the Clean Fifteen™ tested positive for more than 4 types of pesticides.
• Multiple pesticide residues are extremely rare on Clean Fifteen™ vegetables. Only 5.5 percent of Clean Fifteen samples had two or more pesticides.

While I’m thinking about food research and useful shopping filters, I would also suggest you check out Monterey Bay’s Aquarium app call Seafood Watch that provides ratings for types of fish and methods for fishing that help consumers make a decision when shopping at a food store. The app works on smart phones, and I have found the app helpful when trying to cut through the various tuna choices. Check out their app here: Seafood Watch

Apps and Dirty Dozen Lists can be helpful when we can’t trace the origins of our food. But when you order from ALFN’s market, the growers are right there. They are our local neighbors. From urban farms to ranches in northwest Arkansas, our growers bring products backed by transparent production methods. You don’t need a third party app when shopping through ALFN!

Take care,

Kyle Holton
Program & Market Manager