The Organic Dilemma:  To buy organic or not.  The historical problem has been finding the organic produce, and then once finding, being willing to shell out the money. Many times I’ve headed to Whole Foods with the best intentions of buying organic, and then not able to make the plunge because of the price. The good news is that more and more chain stores are introducing organic lines, and the number of farmers markets offering their wares on a regular basis is on the rise.  The increased availability is also making the pricing for many of these items much more reasonable.

The Environmental Working Group  (EWG) just released their “dirty dozen” guide to the most pesticide contaminated foods, which is based on statistical analysis of testing conducted by the USDA and FDA.  The list only reflects measurable pesticide residues on the parts of the foods consumers normally eat (after being washed and peeled).  This was an eye opener to me, because I erroneously assumed as long as I was doing a good job washing my produce, that most of the residue would be removed.

According to the EWG, “consumers can reduce their pesticide exposure by 80% by avoiding the most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating only the cleanest.  If consumers get their USDA recommended 5 daily servings of fruits and veggies from the 15 most contaminated, they could consumer an average of 10 pesticides a day.  Those who eat the 15 least contaminated conventionally grown produce ingest less than 2 pesticides daily.”

The following is the Dirty Dozen list.  If at all possible, buy the following items organic.

1.  Celery:  The #1 veggie, with 64 pesticides detected

2.  Peaches:  62 residues have been detected on peaches

3.  Strawberries:  59 pesticide residues detected

4,  Apples:  42 pesticide residues detected

5.  Blueberries:  52 pesticides detected

6.  Nectarines:  33 pesticides detected

7.  Sweet Bell Peppers:  49 different pesticides detected

8.  Spinach:  Can be laced with as many as 48 different pesticides, making if one of the most contaminated green leafy vegetables

9.  Kale: Typically thought of as a hardier vegetable rarely suffering from pests and disease, this year’s testing showed high amounts of residue

10.  Cherries:  Even locally grown cherries have high levels of pesticides

11.  Potatoes:  37 different types of pesticides detected

12.  Grapes:  Imported grapes run a much greater risk of contamination than those grown domestically.

What was on this list was not terribly surprising to me.  What was surprising was the amount of pesticide residue measured, plus the fact that washing isn’t effective in removing the residue impact.

So what’s on the “Clean” list – fruits and vegetables that have very low residue, and are relatively safe to eat (without having to upgrade to organic):

Onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, papaya, watermelon, broccoli, tomatoes and sweet potatoes.

It was hard walking by that large display of delicious looking peaches yesterday on sale for 99 cents a pound.  But I did. I think I will try harder to follow these guidelines.

What about you?  I’m always interested to learn if folks have totally made the switch, if they buy some organic but not all, or if they rarely buy organic.  Let me know!