Why are strawberries the dirtiest fruits and vegetables from garden to table?

A strawberry can be eaten in a thousand ways.

The source of the sour taste on the ice cream, the red decoration on the pudding, even a single strawberry there is also very tempting.

Some people like its taste, some people like its shape, it can be said to be thousands of dotes on one.

However, a foreign list poured cold water on everyone, giving strawberries the title of "dirtiest fruits and vegetables".

The Environmental work Organization (EWG), a US environmental agency, has released a list of "pesticide residues".

The list of data is taken from the United States Department of Agriculture's test results for pesticide residues in 38800 common agricultural products.

However, the EWG lists the amount of pesticide residues as the main criterion.

Strawberries topped the list of "dirtiest" for three consecutive years with an average of 5 pesticide residues, with a record of 22.

EWG, a non-profit, non-partisan environmental organization

In fact, this honor does not live up to its name, and it is not rigorous to take the quantity of pesticide residues as the standard.

For the discussion of pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables, talking about quantity without the dose is nothing more than hooliganism.

From the angle of the list, "Qingqi" can't just say that EWG is spreading rumors and causing trouble. it is also mentioned in the original news published in CNN that they have sorted out the dosage of drugs, perhaps more because of misinterpretation by the media.

Besides, strawberries are not completely wronged.

The delicate image of strawberry is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, in fact, it is indeed very fragile.

They do not have a hard shell, rich in water and sugars are more likely to attract all kinds of insects and fungi.

It has not had time to adapt to the harsh natural environment, so in industrial cultivation, the use of drugs is indeed the norm.

After all, strawberries have only a short history of 400 years of artificial hybridization.

As early as the first century AD, Roman poets mentioned strawberries in their poems, when strawberries were just common ornamental plants.

Wild strawberries may have a longer history, and Native Americans have a practice of strawberry cakes.

But wild strawberries are not the same thing as today's strawberries because of their small fruit and lack of flavor.

The red appearance of wild strawberries is still eye-catching and can always attract many animals to "taste fresh".

This is also one of its survival strategies, the strawberry pulp we often eat is just an enlarged receptacle.

The inside of the small white particles attached to the surface * are the real seeds that come to the ground along the animal's intestines to take root and sprout.

With the help of animals, they have more opportunities for natural hybridization, and finally appear flavor fruits that appeal to human beings.

* A troublesome cold knowledge: small white particles can only be regarded as achenes and contain seeds inside. The red meat of strawberries we eat is not a fruit, but a receptacle, so although strawberries look like berries, they should be aggregated achenes.

It was not until the Middle Ages that strawberries came into the gardens of Europe from the wilderness.

Florida strawberry from North America is one of the first three varieties to be introduced.

As a rare and delicious variety, Florida strawberry came to England from the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.

Omnipotent British gardeners began to breed new varieties, and the number of varieties soared from three to 30.

Florida strawberry plant

The most important turning point in history was the espionage relationship with France.

In 1714, a spy of the French Intelligence Service was ordered by King Louis XIV to Chile to spy on intelligence.

He was responsible for investigating enemy fortifications in Latin America, and he was so efficient that he even brought back five more "prisoners."

On the way back to China, he did his best to keep the five "prisoners" complete, and his treatment was no less than that of the guests.

Amedee-Francois Frazier

When he escorted them to the king, the "top secret information" that he had brought back from great painstaking efforts really stunned the audience.

Those are five strawberry seedlings from Chile, which are more popular than other intelligence.

It is said that the spy got where he is today because his ancestors presented delicious fruit to the king at a dinner party.

He regards it as a philosophy of life: delicious fruit is worth a hundred times more than state secret information.

Chilean strawberries, also known as beach strawberries, are found on the beach.

Although the spy was not rich and rich, strawberries ushered in spring.

Chilean strawberries have qualities that other varieties lack. They have fewer but larger flowers and produce larger fruits.

It's just that Chilean strawberries are not hardy and are difficult to grow because they are far from the mild coastal climate.

Coincidentally, Florida strawberries, which came to Europe earlier, are quite hardy.

Because of the hybrid, female Chilean strawberries and male Florida strawberries have produced a whole new offspring-pineapple strawberries.

Pineapple strawberries combine all the advantages of both. The fruit is big and full, cold-resistant, delicious and delicious, and it is immediately popular in Europe.

Under the cultivation of omnipotent British gardeners, pineapple strawberries have blossomed everywhere and have evolved into more than 2000 varieties.

The biggest difference between modern strawberries and wild strawberries lies in the composition of chromosomes.

Most wild strawberries are diploid and tetraploid (musk strawberry is hexaploid), while most hybrids are octaploid and decaploid.

Generally speaking, polyploid plants are larger than diploids, including Florida strawberries, Chilean strawberries and pineapple strawberries mentioned earlier.

It can be said that octaploid is a comprehensive work of strawberries, and edible strawberries since then are inextricably linked with these three kinds.

* Note: all strawberry genes have 7 haploid chromosomes, diploid is 14 chromosomes, tetraploid is 28 chromosomes, and so on.

Strawberry varieties were introduced in China a little later.

In 1915, Russian overseas Chinese introduced Victory Strawberry from Moscow.

But strawberries really flourished in the 1950s as a cash crop.

Coincidentally, about the same time, French chemists declared success in the research of organophosphorus agents, and the development of pesticides entered an era of "high efficiency".

The resistance to pesticides is also increasing year by year.

This is undoubtedly good news for strawberry cultivation.

The fragility of strawberries has always been the difficulty of strawberry industrialization, and it is also the reason for the high price.

The popularity of pesticides has completely changed the strawberry industry, and it is also the beginning of the application of 22 pesticides.

Extremely perishable is also a characteristic of strawberries.

For example, the application of dilatins (scientific name clopirazide) can make strawberries look full.

For cash crops, the bigger the better, the bigger the better. Dilatins can promote fruit enlargement and are used in many fruits and vegetables.

Of course, bulgarin does not affect our health.

On the one hand, the oral acute poisoning dose of mice is 4918 mg per kilogram of body weight, which is quite difficult for human body poisoning.

On the other hand, dilatins degraded rapidly, and 60% of them degraded after spraying plants for 24 hours.

Chloropyrazuron

But in an experiment in 2001, it was found that the application of dilatins affected the total acid content of strawberries, either sour or tasteless.

In fact, proper thinning of flowers and fruits can also get larger fruits.

The method is very simple, properly remove the plant flowers and fruits, so that nutrients are concentrated on other fruits, but the yield is bound to be affected.

Quality or output depends on the individual's choice.

The dilemma of dilemma is only part of the strawberry medicine.

What really affects the harvest is how to use germicidal and insecticidal pesticides.

Strawberries will face many fatal diseases in their life. they need to prevent red pillar root rot and anthracnose at seedling stage and pests such as thrips at full flowering.

Any kind of disease or insect pest can make farmers burn down their hard work.

Red middle pillar root rot

For example, the root rot of the red pillar is jokingly called "strawberry cancer" by farmers.

The disease is caused by host-specific infection of strawberry Phytophthora. The root system darkens and softens, and the stele of the root turns reddish brown and rotten.

The underground root system is dry, the aboveground leaves are yellow and wilted, and the worst thing is its infectivity. if no measures are taken, the whole planting area can be destroyed in a few cultivation cycles.

In 2007, a survey in Yichun City, Jiangxi Province showed that the incidence rate is now as high as 20% to 40%.

You may think that if you make a detailed calculation, one harm corresponds to one drug. Is 20 too many?

In fact, there is always competition between germs, pests and pesticides.

We also worry about the emergence of superbugs with antibiotics for colds, and excessive single pesticides will naturally lead to "super pests".

A variety of pesticides to deal with a disease is nothing more than a strategic solution.

In fact, in Australia, strawberry cultivation does achieve non-pesticide control.

Comprehensive pest control strategies are adopted in the field, and non-pesticide control methods such as natural enemies are applied to control the diseases that may be encountered.

For example, Pseudomonas fluorescens can deal with red pillar root rot, and the inhibition rate is the same as that of pesticides, reaching 59%.

As early as 1996, 90% of farmers in Australia adopted non-pesticide control strategies.

However, this method is not easy to promote in China.

China's agricultural conditions determine the agricultural planting model dominated by retail investors, and the difficulty of intensive management is the biggest problem.

At present, the price of organic crops is falsely high, how can there be no farmers trying to make a profit?

But adhere to organic cultivation, but also need the time, the earth and the people.

When farmers next door apply a large amount of medicine, they will inevitably drive diseases and insect pests into the organic field. How should they choose at this time?

In fact, in the process of traditional greenhouse cultivation of strawberries, most of the pesticides used are highly efficient, low toxic or extremely easy to decompose.

Because strawberry fruit is fragile, pesticides are mostly applied in the early stage of flowering in order not to affect the shape of the fruit.

And after 5-6 days of pesticide spraying, the decomposition has come to an end, and the residual concentration on the fruit is very low.

As long as pesticide residues do not exceed the national standards *, the quantity can not be used as a reference.

The name "dirtiest fruits and vegetables" is more of a bluff to the layman.

* Note: the current limit standard of pesticide residues in China is becoming more and more perfect, in which there are 3560 maximum residues of 387 pesticides, which basically cover the common use of drugs in common cash crops, so there is no problem as a safety reference.

The market has always had contradictory requirements for agricultural products: not only to get rid of pesticides, but also to be good and cheap.

Agriculture is developing, and it may be possible to do so in the near future.

It's just, what will it sacrifice? For example, the pure and fresh taste of fruit.