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EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

foodwatch.org

281–290 of 315 posts

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would imagine any agricultural use of vinegar as an organic chemical pales in comparison to it’s culinary use.

Agricultural use is a lot more concentrated though, which is important. In the case of vinegar this is about safety. Though I don't know how much vinegar is used in ag - my facebook feed is full of people who don't need roundup because some concoction of vinegar, salt, and dish soap works - they never point out that you need PPE to work with this stuff that isn't required for roundup.

Agricultural use is not more concentrated than culinary use by the time it goes into my mouth. I've never tasted any vegetable off the shelf that was more sour than a pickle.

Occupational exposure is certainly a totally different story but the context of the story and root of this thread was about the consumer safety of the end product.

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The United States has far stricter labeling standards than the EU. That's why US products appear to have more ingredients, they are required to say what their ingredients are mad from, even on identical products. Many things that are well known memes are completely false. Not everything in the EU is better regulated. Everyone always complains about chlorinated chicken, not realizing that <5% of US chicken is washed t…

On the other hand, US tap water is absolutely drenched in chlorine. Awful stuff.

This is exactly what I’m talking about. The US and the European Union both allow chlorine in drinking water as in both areas it’s used kill bacteria. The US allows slightly more but both of them set it to safe levels and the chlorine and chloramane used do not make people sick

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#283
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was surprised after moving to Ireland to discover that you can break the law and nothing will happen. I went through hell with planners (idiots who don’t believe in climate change and hate eaves) while people around me put three mobile homes on their land as well as building two permanent homes with no permission (and ripping out ancient hedgerows) and successfully got retention. Why even bother?

I jokingly refer to this as the Catholic principle: "sin first - confess and repent later" as it's a common theme in countries that are/were traditionally Catholic, including my own. It's really just places culturally untouched by Calvinism, Puritanism and the like, all of which put emphasis on order. The last thing to attempt bringing order to them were various forms of authoritarianism and they didn't last. I think…

It's the saying, "It's easier to ask forgiveness than get permission."

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/06/19/forgive/

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it is controlled for the wrong criterias. "Natural" doesn't mean healthy or good for the environment. It is only greenwashing and "appeal to nature" fallacy

Strong claims require strong evidence, not just throwing random fashionable words others are using. Your claims are very strong.

Do you need evidence that "Natural doesn't mean healthy or good for the environment"?

Asbestos, is "natural". So is Arsenic. And CO2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature

Or do you need evidence that the bio labels are not optimizing for health or environment? Check the rules. Most of them are just there to restrict synthetic products, regardless of their impact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_certification#False_as...

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#285
I drink a lot of tea and I hadn't really thought about pesticides. I really don't know what's wrong with people. For so, so many products the thought process seems to be:

  - encounter minor problem

  - apply poison permanently and liberally
And then when you try to say that poison is bad someone comes in clutching their pearls and shrieking "but if we didn't use poison then the product would be more expensive!" I'd rather have less of it than be poisoned.

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#286
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one of the richest food cultures in the world. If you've never tried sichuan peppercorn on mapo tofu, or pickled mustard greens on noodle dishes, I think you're in for a real treat. These do involve foods from China though..

Eh, tofu is hardly something that anyone is worse of not having.

the famed triple negative (also tofu is healthy and delicious)

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#287

Not a single word on where the toxic products were produced except third countries?

Large amounts of pesticides which are banned from use in EU and/or US, are produced there then exported.

Afaik there's some EU work towards closing this loophole. But nothing major that made it into legislation (so far). No doubt Monsanto, Bayer & co have lobbyists + lawyers working to slow down or prevent that.

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#288
post #126
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All but 2 countries in South America have had the experience of democratically electing a leader only to have them overthrown in a US-backed coup. The US/CIA started with this obsession with the 1954 Guatemalan Coup specifically to maintain Guatemala as a banana republic. Chiquita owned most land in Guatemala and left is uncultivated to stifle competition. Jacobo Árbenz wanted to (slightly) tax this land to reduce po…

Not just South America: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleged_CIA_involvement_in_the...

Of course not.[0][1][2] But nowhere as extensively as South America.[3][4]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9ta...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_mass_killings_of_19...

[3] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/26/a-timeline-of-cia-...

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#289
post #228
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All but 2 countries in South America have had the experience of democratically electing a leader only to have them overthrown in a US-backed coup. The US/CIA started with this obsession with the 1954 Guatemalan Coup specifically to maintain Guatemala as a banana republic. Chiquita owned most land in Guatemala and left is uncultivated to stifle competition. Jacobo Árbenz wanted to (slightly) tax this land to reduce po…

One way to view current US politics is that the broader banana republic tendency ran out of South American governments to overthrow and moved back to the domestic government, which has now taken on all the corruption and extractive politics of South American CIA-backed dictatorships. The violence levels are not comparable .. yet. But having an explicitly political paramilitary force that's shot a few citizens in the…

There's a well-known sociological concept called "imperial boomerang" that describes this. It's also seen in surveillance technologies used against oppressed people. As far back as the surveillance apparatus Britain built in Ireland which eventually came to roost on the British people themselves

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_boomerang

Re: EU-banned pesticides found in rice, tea and spices

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they aren't even cloning anything even close to the tastiest bananas, just the ones best suited for transport/storage.

I don't eat bananas I can buy in Europe, not after doing some travels. They are extremely bland, doesn't matter where I buy them. Now when traveling in exotic countries, what a beautiful experience to taste one!

"Exotic countries" lol. There's at least a few species in the banana genus that grow in almost every single country in the global south
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