My minor in college was chemistry, so I posted a thread in Organic Rose entitled, "Woodash for blackspots and mildew, for acidic soil only". I'll re-post the info. I wrote on woodash as a natural pesticide: Woodash can also be used as insecticides ... see this excerpt from eHow: "Wood ash is a safe alternative to insecticide use in the garden. Wood ash repels insects, slugs and snails by drawing water from their bodies until they are dehydrated. Sprinkling ashes around the base of plants will control surface feeding insects." Wood ash has high pH above 11, caustic to my skin when I took wood ash from the neighbor's fire place. Its causticity kills insects on contact. Here's another excerpt from link below: "Abstract: Laboratory assays demonstrated that wood ash is toxic to adult and larval stages of the Colorado potato beetle. Insect mortality reached 100% among larvae and beetles continuously exposed to wood ash for periods of up to 10 days ... " http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12230-012-9234-7 **** From Straw: Wood ash is a better alternative than chemical insecticides, considering the following news: "Use of Common Pesticide, Imidacloprid, Linked to Bee Colony Collapse. Apr. 5, 2012 ��" The likely culprit in sharp worldwide declines in honeybee colonies since 2006 is imidacloprid, one of the most widely used pesticides, according to a new study from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)." Imidacloprid is manufactured by Bayer Corp. Here's the info. from Wikipedia "Recent research suggests that widespread agricultural use of imidacloprid and other pesticides may be contributing to honey bee colony collapse disorder, the decline of honey bee colonies in Europe and North America observed since 2006.[8][9][10] As a result, several countries have restricted use of imidacloprid and other neonicotinoids.[8] In January 2013, the European Food Safety Authority stated that neonicotinoids pose an unacceptably high risk to bees." Here is a link that might be useful: Science Daily news on Imidacloprid and Bee Collapse

Catherine: Keep up the good work. keep feeding your kids organic veggies and you can keep them pesticide-free. Note than many schools are serving more and more organic foods because of their healthiness. AND, I agree about having seedlings and feeling compelled to plant them ... and then face the surplus of produce. Could be worse tho! Here is a link that might be useful: Rural Life 2.0

Organic gardening is pesticide free in my garden. The only chemical I have ever sprayed in my garden is soapy water, and I hardly ever do even that. SInce I cover myself with soapy water all the time I don't consider that a pesticide ever though it can kill pests. Since people are advised to wash their produce before eating it, I think I could claim quite truthfully that my stuff is pesticide free. I have also killed some pests just with water (drowning), but I wouldn't call water a pesticide. "As to organic food being better nutritionally? Well probably not technically for the most part" Amazingly enough organic food has been shown to be better nutritionally. Probably relates to the soil being richer in organic material. Antioxidants and vitamins tested were significantly higher in organically grown produce. Here are two quotes from one article about it, just Google 'organic vitamin antioxidant higher nutrition' and you will find a slew of articles about all the research and analysis. >>The decline in our produce's nutritional value corresponds to the period of increasing industrialization of our farming systems. As we have substituted chemical fertilizers, pesticides and monoculture farming for the natural cycling of nutrients and on-farm biodiversity, we have lessened the nutritional value of our produce. Integrated well-established organic farming systems can counter the decline. >>For example, Virginia Worthington, a clinical nutritionist who earned her doctorate in nutrition at Johns Hopkins, published a review in 2001 of 41 studies comparing the nutritional value of organic and conventional produce. After tallying the data across all the studies, Worthington concluded that organic produce had on average 27 percent more vitamin C, 21.1 percent more iron, 29.3 percent more magnesium and 13.6 percent more phosphorous than conventional produce. I do agree that locally grown is just as important as organics, though. The amount of fuel spent transporting food around the globe is scary. Marcia Here is a link that might be useful: article the quote is from

Interesting. I use no pesticides at all, but when I hear about cognitive function, I think about children. I also think about pregnant women who are carrying and nurturing children. I don't know how we can expect a straight answer about these chemicals when it took so long for us to hear about the dangers of hormone replacement after the companies had proof that they were dangerous. Once something has been approved, it is very difficult to get it off the market -- aspirin for instance. I don't know if there are many jobs around that hire people to prove that chemicals are dangerous -- just to prove that they are safe. All you have to do to find out how safe they are is to call the company and ask. Don't ask about yourself, but ask about exposure to a baby or pregnant woman. If it is dangerous for them, it is too dangerous for me. Sammy