Good for you!
Why do people buy organic food? Because it tastes better? It feels good? It’s healthier? To avoid pesticides and growth hormones? For those of us over here at yuppieenvironmentalist, we think that all of those are good reasons to buy organic food. So we try to buy as much of it as our “food dollar” will allow.
But let’s face it. Organic food can be quite a bit more expensive than conventional food. The question comes up often- does everything I buy have to be organic?
Maybe not. Especially if your primary reason for buying organic is to avoid pesticides. It turns out that certain foods contain very high levels of pesticides. These foods are often referred to as “the dirty dozen.” Research from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) indicates that people who eat the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables consume an average of 10 pesticides per day. Obviously, it would be wise to buy the organic version of these foods, if possible. There is also a group of foods known as “the clean fifteen.” The EWG reports that folks who eat conventionally grown fruits and vegetables from this list consume an average of 2 pesticides per day. You could then infer that if you had to buy some conventional foods, your safest bet would be the ones on this list.
Bryan and I have altered our organic purchasing habits because of this list. We now try to buy the organic version of all of the dirty dozen (and try to grow some of them ourselves). These foods include bell peppers, apples, strawberries and lettuce. We were also happy to know that some of our favorite foods, like bananas, broccoli, corn and sweet potatoes are among some of the “cleanest” foods. We don’t by organic bananas anymore, but we always buy organic strawberries. Knowing which foods to focus on when buying organic has really helped us save money when we needed to.
You can download a free, wallet sized version of the Dirty Dozen/Clean Fifteen here. Print out a copy for you and some extras for your friends.