The Dirty Dozen

I like to buy organic whenever possible.  But, I'm cheap and don't always want to pay the extra price for organic food.  To help ease my guilty conscience about only being able to afford organic food sometimes, I follow the Dirty Dozen list put out by the Environmental Working Group.  I used to carry around the handy wallet card that EWG puts out but they have since developed a free app for Iphones which makes my life just that much easier!

It is still important to do a quick price comparison between the organic and non-organic versions of the Clean 15 foods - there is occasionally only a minimal price difference between the two.  In those instances, I'll always buy the organic produce because I still think that organic is a better option (when possible).

EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce

Dirty Dozen

Buy these organic

1

Apples

2

Celery

3

Strawberries

4

Peaches

5

Spinach

6

Nectarines
– imported

7

Grapes – imported

8

Sweet bell peppers

9

Potatoes

10

Blueberries
– domestic

11

Lettuce

12

Kale/collard greens

Clean 15

Lowest in Pesticide

1

Onions

2

Sweet Corn

3

Pineapples

4

Avocado

5

Asparagus

6

Sweet peas

7

Mangoes

8

Eggplant

9

Cantaloupe
- domestic

10

Kiwi

11

Cabbage

12

Watermelon

13

Sweet potatoes

14

Grapefruit

15

Mushrooms