Are Organic Nuts Actually Pesticide free?
No, organic nuts are not pesticide free and buying organic nuts does not guarantee you are safe from exposure to them. There are a few reasons behind this that you need to understand. They are:
1.) Organic process only bans synthetic pesticides (man made chemical compounds created in a lab or through industrial manufacturing processes). But they do allow for the use of naturally derived pesticides (derived directly from naturally occurring minerals, plants, fungi, and bacteria). So rather than organic meaning pesticide free it means using only naturally derived pesticides.
2.) Pesticide drift — to simplify what it is, imagine that your neighbor is spraying their lawn with weed killer on a windy day. That spray does not stay perfectly on their lawn. The wind carries tiny invisible particles of it through the air and they land on your garden next door. This happens on a much larger scale with neighboring farms (a non organic farm next to an organic farm).
Why is this important in nuts? Because nuts are extremely susceptible to pesticide absorption because 1) nut meats contain between 50% and 75% healthy fats, systemic pesticides (chemicals absorbed into the plant during growth) settle directly into this oily matrix. 2) The chemicals in nuts are absorbed deep into the tissue. This means washing them has very little effect.
Why is this frustrating? Say you set out on a simple goal of either avoiding pesticides or avoiding synthetic pesticides in nuts, i.e. you set your own standard of what you feel comfortable consuming in a certain product. Would it be possible for you to uphold this standard if individual batch test results are not easily available? You have no idea, even if the product is organic, if drift occurred and what natural pesticides were used.
You are here because you understand the impact that pesticides can have on health. You define your own standards of what you want to accept. We want you to research the effect and decide your own standards. We want to bring transparency so you can apply your own standards, not tell you what standards to live by.
What can you do right now to enforce your standard in nuts? Choose between organic and conventional foods, use tools like the EWG Shopper Guide, if you can source the nuts locally talk to the growers directly or reach out via email, soak the nuts if raw in water with salt, baking soda, or vinegar. Even with a large transparency gap there are still ways right now that you can enforce your standard, even though they will not be perfect.
What is SOL trying to fix? Simply put we are trying to close that gap of transparency so you as the consumer can fully enforce your standard. The only way this is possible is by batch testing products to show you what actually ends up in them regardless of the process used to produce them. You deserve to know exactly what ended up in the nuts you bought and every product you use . That is what SOL is building towards.