I've been buying Organic Californian medjool dates from my local wholesaler at around £11 per KG (or $17 U.S per 2.2lbs). They taste amazing and im happy to pay for them however, I have just discovered i can get them at half that price from another wholesaler but not organic. Thats about $8.50 for 2.2Lbs.. I know that some fruits become more concentrated with certain pesticides etc and was wondering if non organic date production uses a lot of artificial fertilizers/funcicides/herbicides? With specific reference to California Medjool dates.
As they would be HALF the price i usually pay I am very tempted to go for non organic but as i eat alot of them i dont know whether this would be harmful and not worth it?
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks,
Jo :-)
P.s. I buy dates in the UK where they have been shipped. Do non org dates have any fungicides/preservatives added? i always thought none would be needed because they are so sweet.
Replies
I am eating non-organic ones here in Thailand because I can't get hold of organic. They taste really amazing so I doubt many chemicals are involved. It's hard to produce really quality fruit with hardcore chemicals. That being said if I had access to Organic I would buy them every single time. Supporting organic is really important and as you will be having a large quantity of non-oganice dates there is also the possibility that you will be getting a big whack of pesticides.
I would always try to choose organic every single time. The mentality is, if everyone buys organic (which is usually at least better in one way or another than the non-organic counterpart), then the prices should eventually go down. When organic first got big here in Australia, the prices on everything was through the roof. But organic is like a craze, and prices have been on a steady decrease for many years now.
If more farms convert to organic, i think that is another step towards an amazing future for this planet. If you can afford organic, then please buy it! :)