Organic Produce  I commonly hear people (mostly American's) tell me something like "all produce in Uruguay is organic, simply because they cannot afford the pesticides".I think that is a dangerous assumption and not close to being correct. I have made some observations. Some of the fruit in the grocery store differs between that labeled "organic" and that with no label. It is generally smaller and less perfect (ie: bug bites, etc). The chard and organic chard looks almost identical. The difference being the original chard looks just a little bit more wilted. In the fridge... the organic chard is completely wilted within 3 days and the other chard seems "ok" after a week. You can't tell me that the stuff without the "organic" label hasn't been in some way treated. I recently purchased some wheat seeds from a seed distributor. Instead of getting some seeds that were golden brown and ready to sprout... I got a big bag of wheat seeds that were poisoned. They are colored red and after reading about the "fungicide" they were treated with, I don't want to touch them, much eat them or anything else grown where they are planted. I don't even want to throw them out for fear that the garbage collectors won't realize why they are red... That is also a good sign that wheat which isn't labeled "organic" isn't organic. Of course what the labeling of something "organic" is different question. But, I think it is safe to assume that if something is NOT labeled organic, it is NOT organic. A friend told me to watch out for certain fruits as they are treated with very bad pesticides. She emailed me this recommendation: You must buy vegetables organics (Tomato, Lechuga, Acelga, Espinaca) and eat the fruits without the skin. Ther is a list of risk in order "descendente" of the vegetables and fruits: TOMATE MANZANA BANANA LECHUGA PAPA ZANAHORIA MORRON ZAPALLITO DURAZNO FRUTILLA PERA UVA CEBOLLA ACELGA ZAPALLO CHOCLO ESPINACA MELON SANDIA MANDARINA NARANJA LIMON BONIATO Roger touches a little bit on the point of treating produce in a blog post: "If the produce has gone through the Mercado Modelo, it has probably been gassed, irradiated, or otherwise treated as required for fresh produce by the city's health and sanitation laws" and maybe more importantly that if it comes straight from the farmer, "it has probably only been exposed to the fertilizers and pesticides of the growing process." I may be completely wrong and someone may be able to confirm this urban legend that produce in Uruguay is by default organic. | 
