Reaping What We Sow
By Tonya Parker
Balance is one of my life themes. Born under the sign
of Libra, it has set the tone throughout my life. Down
through the years, I have been called to careers and
practices that focus on restoring balance:
psychotherapy, shamanic healing, Reiki, massage
therapy, conscious cooking. I am able to sense when
people, situations, even foods are out of balance, and I
am doing muc h better at sensing it within myself. One
lesson I have learned about balance is that it takes
work to maintain it; we will reap what we sow, or
another way of putting it, the effort we put into it will
yield results that are equal to that effort.
There are many ways in which our Western world
works that collaborate to throw us out of balance—
with ourselves, others, nature. We often engage in
practices that result in consequences that may not serve
us. One example is with food. Hunting and gathering
cultures did not experience the health conditions we do
today. They lived simply, ate fresh, whole foods that
were available in that season, had not been
contaminated by pesticides, and were not processed for
convenience. Well, to me, it is quite inconvenient to
experience the dis-ease to person and planet that can
result with tilting the scale away from nature for our
foods.
Pesticides are toxins, designed to kill living organisms
—pests. However, we, as humans, are not left
unscathed. The Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) will concede that, depending on the pesticide,
exposed people can experience: effects with our
nervous or endocrine systems, irritation of our skin and
eyes, or exposure to carcinogens. However, they
maintain that the residue left on our food is of
“reasonable certainty of no harm.” On the other hand,
independent studies have found the opposite to be true.
Along with the aforementioned concerns, those
exposed to pesticides have been found to experience
headaches, dizziness, nausea, system dysfunction,
embryonic development disruption, fatigue, attention
deficit disorder, and more. Endocrine system
disruption can lead to infertility, and the carcinogens
have created cancers including leukemia, nonHodgkins lymphoma, brain, bone, breast, ovarian,
prostate, testicular and liver cancers. The impact is
seen sometimes years after exposure.
Each year, the Environmental Working Group (EWG)
has identified the “Dirty Dozen”— the twelve most
contaminated fruits/vegetables. It is suggested you buy
these produce items organic to protect from pesticides.
The “Clean Fifteen” least contaminated are also listed.
2014 “Dirty Dozen” Most Contaminated
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Apples
Strawberries
Grapes
Celery
Peaches
Spinach
Sweet Bell Peppers
Nectarines (Imported)
Cucumbers
Cherry Tomatoes
Snap Peas (Imported)
Potatoes
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