So I know I talk a lot on this blog about how we can use technology to solve the problems that our society creates, but we need to remember there are boundaries to that. I feel that using technology to improve our lives is great, but altering the chemical balance of our environment and our selves is generally not a good idea. One great example is the chemical Chlorpropham, also known as ‘bud nip’. It’s sprayed on a variety of vegetables to extend their shelf life and prevent, for example, potatoes from sprouting. Other vegetables sprayed by this are blueberries, carrots, onions, spinach, tomatoes, beets, and cranberries (and many others…). Like many chemicals, this is shown to cause all sorts of health problems in lab experiments (see link), but we’re told that low doses are OK. The problem is, if we inject our bodies with low doses of a wide variety of chemicals form all sorts of different exposures in our daily lives, how can we believe that would be safe?

The solution, in my opinion, is to minimize the amount of unnatural chemicals we put into our bodies. Eating organic food is one great place to start, or better yet, grow your own!

Here’s a great video of an experiment done by a kid about this: