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Which Fruits & Veggies Are the Most Important to Buy Organic?
It’s true—organic produce can cost a bit more than conventional. So where should you put your organic consumer dollars? Use those shopping dollars to avoid the conventional fruits and vegetables that have shocking levels of pesticides.
Meet the Dirty Dozen Plus™; the fruits and veggies MOST laden with pesticides by conventional growers. If at all possible, buy these organically grown. Thanks to the Environmental Working Group for creating the Dirty Dozen Plus™, based on their annual testing of pesticide levels in fruits and vegetables.
Apples
Celery
Cherry tomatoes
Cucumbers
Grapes
Hot peppers
Nectarines
Peaches
Potatoes
Spinach
Strawberries
Sweet bell peppers
The Environmental Working Group added two “Plus” members of the group, shown below, explaining that “[t]hese crops did not meet traditional Dirty Dozen™ criteria but were commonly contaminated with pesticides exceptionally toxic to the nervous system.”
Kale and collard greens
Summer squash
Shop an organic farmers’ market with Tricia in our new video. Wondering who gets to say what is and is not “organic”? Tricia explains that too, and we decipher the alphabet soup of those organizations in another article.
Please consider sharing this with your friends who don’t always buy organic. Oh, and if you want some good news, check out the Clean Fifteen™—conventional veggies with low levels of pesticides.
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Comments (4)
If you drink it coffee is often grown with chemicals not allowed in the US so very important to buy Organic.
Marti, Yes, peanuts are often rotated with cotton (partly so that the cotton will benefit from the nitrogen-fixing properties of the peanut legume). You make an interesting point about looking at the crop rotation and what non-food conventional pesticides might be used when that occurs.
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Your videos instill confidence for ordering your great selection of products. 
I read in a whole food cookbook that because peanuts are a crop that is rotated with cotton plants (a very chemical laden plant) that buying organic peanuts and peanut butter is important.
Posted by Marti Carlton on Aug. 01, 2013 at 6:59:19 AM