When is Buying Organic a MUST?

  It’s pretty scary what is being sprayed on our food supply. 60% of herbicides, 90% of fungicides and 30% of insecticides known to be carcinogenic (cancer–causing). Studies are now finding pesticides in the urine of our children, but much less in children who consume organic produce.   It is important to buy organic food because it is:

• a safer option for you and your family
• grown without chemicals or genetic engineering (GMO)
• more sustainable farming process
• better for the environment
• safer for farm workers
• more nutritious
• the way nature intended
• much better tasting

Sometimes buying 100% organic is unreasonable. It can be a lot more expensive and hard to get depending on what is available where you live. The Environmental Working Group has come up with this amazing resource to help consumers shop smart! It shows you which foods are safest to buy non-organic and which foods is most important to pay the extra few dollars for. The Dirty Dozen (Most heavily sprayed):

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Cherry tomatoes
4. Cucumbers
5. Grapes
6. Hot peppers
7. Nectarines (imported)
8. Peaches
9. Potatoes
10. Spinach
11. Strawberries
12. Sweet bell peppers
13. Dirty Dozen Plus: Kale/collard greens and Summer squash

The Clean Fifteen (Safer to buy non-organic):

1. Asparagus
2. Avocados
3. Cabbage
4. Cantaloupe
5. Sweet corn (make sure it says non-GMO)
6. Eggplant
7. Grapefruit
8. Kiwi
9. Mangoes
10. Mushrooms
11. Onions
12. Papayas (make sure it says non-GMO)
13. Pineapples
14. Sweet peas (frozen)
15. Sweet potatoes

Take away message: So do your best to buy as much organic produce as you can afford and use resources like Clean 15 and Dirty Dozen to prioritize the rest!