By Julie Christensen
The Environmental Working Group is a non - profit organization that conducts enquiry on the effect of pesticides in our food . Every class , this arrangement issue a tilt of the top twelve fruits and vegetables that are most heavily contaminated with pesticides . The organization base its findings on data obtained from the Department of Agriculture Testing Pesticide Program and the Food and Drug Administration .
The system habituate the following standard to assess individual fruit and vegetable :
The list does n’t change much from year to year and typically includes those crops that tend to suffer the most pest problems or those that grow closest to the ground . wooden-headed - skinned yield , such as citrus , ordinarily have few pesticide residues than fragile - skinned yield such as peaches and strawberries .
Below is the 2013 unsporting twelve list from the EWG :
Additionally , although kale and summer squash / courgette did n’t qualify for the Dirty twelve list based on the current criteria , they contained pesticide balance from some of the most toxic chemicals .
Why Avoid Pesticides?
Although the benefits of eating fresh fruits and vegetables usually outweigh the potential risks of pesticide exposure , there are some very skilful rationality for avoiding pesticide balance whenever possible . Pesticides are designed to kill . Although they might not affect our bodies in exactly the same elbow room they do louse , we can assume that they ’re not in effect for us . Exposure to pesticides has been shown in numerous study to put up to the next wellness risks :
Learn how to do it
If the offensive topic of pesticide residues has you worried about your family line ’s food for thought provision , read on to memorize a few idea to avoid pesticides without break the savings bank . First , grow as much of your own food as potential . Even a flyspeck yard can produce a good deal of garden truck . TheDervaes familygrows over 6,000 pounds of garden truck every summertime on 1/10 of an Accho in business district Los Angeles . expend intensive grow practices , such as raised beds and vertical gardening to boost your yields . By growing your own food , you experience exactly what is – and is n’t – on the crops .
Buy food in season and grease one’s palms topically whenever possible . When you buy food in time of year , you’re able to often find organic green groceries competitively price . shop class at granger ’s markets , and you may ask the Fannie Farmer directly about his grow method . Warehouse stores often carry constituent produce at a fraction of the price you ’d yield elsewhere .
prioritise your purchases . If , for example , your kids eat on a lot of ketchup or apple sauce , it might be worth spending a footling more on organic version of these products , merely because the potential pesticide exposure increase with consumption .
Another affair to consider is the event of GMOs ( genetically modified organism ) . The Dirty Dozen list does n’t admit information on GMOs and suppliers are n’t currently required to label GMO foods . Most of the foods in the saucy produce section are free of GMOs . You ’re more likely to encounter them in process ware , such as corn microchip , tortillas , and snack solid food . Zea mays for meal , soy and canola are the three trade good most likely to include GMOs , and these commodities are in almost every processed food .
To hear more about organic foods and the dirty twelve list , visit the following links :
The List of 48 Contaminated Fruits and Vegetablesfrom the Environmental Working Group
Myths About Pesticidesfrom Pesticide Action connection
CNN covers the dirty twelve onYouTube .
Julie Christensen learned about garden on her grandfather ’s farm and mother ’s vegetable garden in southern Idaho . Today , she live and gardens on the gamy plains of Colorado . When she ’s not digging in the grunge , Julie writes about food , education , parenting and gardening .
