by Sean Croxton

Just wash it off.

Sometimes the simplest answer can be the correct one, especially in times of gross incertitude when contradictory information calls everything into question.

Factor in the emotional charge of scam artists tugging at our wallets and pursestrings, and the majority will resolve to not be the suckers. To wash their hands of it all.

Meanwhile, an ever so small segment of the minority opts to dig through the dirt for the real answers, probing beyond the bought-and-paid-for research and the front page media reports that transmit these faux scientific findings to the masses.

Example. Around this time last year, one such headline was all the buzz in just about every newsroom, kitchen, and produce aisle across the land.

It read: Little Evidence of Health Benefits from Organic Foods, Stanford Study Finds.

The verdict had been handed down. Not by a jury of our peers, but by highly intelligent PhDs in lab coats. Game over.

The majority rejoiced en masse, whooping a collective “I told you so!” across social media feeds.

Organic and non-organic (a.k.a. conventional) foods were deemed separate but equal — separated by stock keeping units and, of course, a palpable cost chasm, but equal in nutritional value. So they said.

The Stanford review, however, came with one caveat that certainly did not go unnoticed by conventional produce consumers.

Quoting this article published on the Stanford Medicine website, “…researchers found that organic produce had a 30 percent lower risk of pesticide contamination than conventional fruits and vegetables, [though] organic foods are not necessarily 100 percent free of pesticides.”

The solution seemed simple: If there’s pesticide on your produce, just wash it off.

If it were only that easy.