I came across this article quite sometime ago and had forgotten about it until my mailing from Chatelaine today. Below is a list compiled by the Enviromental Working Group.
When should I buy organic?
These foods are referred to as “the dirty dozen” – they’re the fruits and vegetables most likely to have residue from pesticides, and they’re ranked in order from most to least toxic.
•Peaches
•Apples
•Bell pepper
•Celery
•Nectarines
•Strawberries
•Cherries
•Kale
•Lettuce
•Grapes
•Carrot
•Pears
When is it okay to save money and buy conventional produce?
These fifteen foods are the cleanest in the produce aisle – they’re the ones least likely to have harmful pesticide residues on them when you buy them.
- Onion
- Avocado
- Sweet corn
- Pineapple
- Mango
- Asparagus
- Sweet peas
- Kiwi
- Cabbage
- Eggplant
- Papaya
- Watermelon
- Broccoli
- Tomato
- Sweet potato
I find it interesting that last year celery was at the top of the dirty dozen, now it’s gone down a few. Do you try to buy your produce organic? Do you know if it’s truly organic? Here we have a fruit and veggie stand once a week that is run by the Mennonites that guarantee their produce is organic.
Click here for the rest of the article and for some fun recipes!
Very Interesting, thank-you
I wish organic items were made more affordable..We try to buy local , green or organic as much as we can and the coupons and deals usually arent on products we buy …I wish the organic companies had more offers and coupons for Organic items …Organic is usually more expensive to start ( because becoming an ORGANIC grade product is a expensive process to start then having a better quality product, better life style for animals on organic farms, organic feed etc..just hard on the wallet to pass up yogurt that is free for yogurt that is 4.99 ( organic ) I always end up doing the organic route but man it kills me to know how cheap I could get things but I want to support buying products that are better for the environment and local economy !
I only buy organicly certified fruits and veggies from local farm market, here we have one year round…I buy what is in season, and freeze or can some for the rest of the year…I refuse to buy produce from other countries…
The only thing I do sometimes buy if they are too expensive , are local non-organic potatoes…
I buy organic as much as I can. I only buy organic strawberries and local apples. Can’t wait for the summer fruit season to kick in so I can enjoy local peaches, blueberries, etc.
I follow the “dirty dozen” list about 90% of the time. I do get peaches at the farmers market, and they are not certified organic, so I don’t know if they are “dirty” or “clean” and sometimes strawberries that are not organic, if organic is too expensive. My passion for couponing came from trying to free up some $ to eat as much organic as possible. From the “clean list” I still buy corn organic. Pretty much all corn in Canada is GMO (gentically modified), unleess organic. Lucky for me, organic frozen corn at Costco is really cheap. I don’t know if something is truly organic, but I’ve noticed that if my son eats organic strawberries, or from from friend’s garden he can eat tons of it and never get a skin rash. It takes about 5 non-organic strawberries and he gets a bad skin rash.
Ohh the stories I could tell you, It goes far beyond pesticides, It the Sustainability that is more important. Sorry but as a professional in this field i still would feed my family them items. I worry more about the farm and whats around it. Sure they may not use a pesticide, however they have a cattle farm close by and when it rains the run off from that field gets into your “Produce” now you have E-Coli which is far deadlier than a pesticide.
Always wash your fruits and veggies!! washing the outside of the melons before cutting into them is very important, since the bacteria is on the outside of the skin, and when you just slice it you can contaminate the melon that you are serving to you or others..
i learned a trick from a clean product i use calles Shaklee h2o and we had a bowl of straight water and a bowl with shaklee h2o and we dipped a apple in each and the water ran off the water of course and with the shalkee it ran off slow with the dirt running off. totally safe to use you can even drink it. Even ate both apples and it was night and day the taste.
This is the second year we’ve bought shares in a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) farm. Every year, from May to November (or whatever the growing season is) we get certified organic, locally grown produce. The difference in taste was incredible, and definitely worth the money. It also encouraged us to eat more veggies!
I wouldn’t buy anything organic. This whole scam has been debunked by many researchers and pundits (Penn and Teller offer a hilarious take on it). If you prefer mysticism, then go organic; however, if you prefer authentic science…don’t bother with organic.
Nice to see organic come up – I save money on household stuff to be able to buy organic. I work in the industry – Certification Body. Out of all the foods that we have to buy and not grow our selves organic is the best. The more you look into the food we eat and what is put into it or on it the scarry it can be.
They haven’t killed me yet, so I’m good. 🙂
It seems like tropical fruit are safer. Makes sense because North America has mass production
Mass production in terms of factory farming, leading to more pollution and contaminants
When thnking of anything grown–I wash it well..and if I am worried about where it was grown, i cook it! Remember, right now the e coli problem in Germany may stem from the organic fertilizer (read: untreated cow or sheep manure).
So So – Just a question, because I am a curious person. Something that is certified organic simply means that they use no more then I believe 2% of pesticides, correct? So could not a farm that grows organic produce still be beside a cow farm, and therefore still the produce could end up with E-coli? Like I said, not trying to slam your comment, I am just curious.
Thankyou! I haven’t seen this list in quite some time and it’s good to be reminded.
OK. I am upset! I have a bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Science, and I would like to defend our conventional farmers that provide everyone with clean,safe, inexpensive food. It has been proven time and time again that food grown in this country to our standards is equivalent to organic. What we really need to do is be award of who is producing your food. Buy Canadian, always–and even better, buy locally. Then you will be assured that your food is clean! It is tough to do, but I ‘can’ at home all summer long so that I do not have to buy foreign produce in the winter. I have an apple farm around the corner where I have rented 2 trees. For a small fee, they will store your apples that you have picked in controlled conditions for the winter.
LOL organics a MYTH …OK ….thats a good one..
I don’t really believe in organic however it would be nice to have a distinction of buying food that does not use pesticides and antibiotics (in the case of meat) and GM foods. I would like to buy GM foods, that have not been sprayed with chemicals.
how can organic be a myth? or don’t really believe in it? what does that mean???
the reason that organic produce is more expensive, is because the american and canadian governments subsidize non-organic farmers vs. organic farmers. pretty sad.
Actually mamatafari, that is completely untrue.