Greatest Bang for Your Organic Buck

Greatest bang for your organic buck

[Photo: My humble, but delicious, 'Nova' and 'Fall Gold' raspberries]

One thing I have been trying to figure out is what is the most worthwhile fruit or vegetable to grow to avoid the most heavily pesticide-laden, conventional produce in the grocery, and also grow plants of higher value (like peppers and herbs, which seem to cost a lot in the grocery versus potatoes, which cost less) or ones that are hard to find (I like lovage, alright?). And I will add into that our personal preferences. [Side note: did you know that it is perfectly legal for US manufacturers to produce, and sell overseas, pesticides, herbicides, etc., that are banned in the US? And that is it perfectly legal for those growers to use these US-banned chemicals on fruits and vegetables that are legally shipped right back to the US, into your grocery stores and onto your tables?]

One useful source of information in my quest was the Environmental Working Group’s ranked list of the fruits and vegetables, from most to least amount and number of pesticide residues. You can find the complete guide, along with lots of other info at:

http://www.foodnews.org/

It was their list of the Dirty Dozen and Cleanest 12 that convinced me to grow many of the top-ranked, most pesticide-laden foods OR to buy organic: here is the list:

Dirty Dozen

Peaches (96.6% of samples contaminated, 9 pesticides found in one sample, 42 pesticides over all samples combined) Rank 1

Apples

Sweet bell peppers

Celery

Nectarines

Strawberries

Cherries

Lettuce

Grapes (imported)

Pears

Spinach

Potatoes (81% of samples contaminated, 4 pesticides found on one sample, 31 over all samples tested)

(I grow all of these except celery, nectarines, cherries and grapes-though I just bought my first Muscadine (fox) grape plants!).

The Cleanest 12:

Onions (.2% contaminated, 1 pesticide found max on a single sample, 2 over all samples) rank 45

Avocados

Sweet Corn (frozen)

Pineapples

Mangoes

Sweet peas (frozen)

Asparagus

Kiwi

Bananas

Cabbage

Broccoli

Eggplant (23.4% contaminated, max 4 pesticides on one sample, 15 over all samples)

(I feel comfortable buying conventionally raised versions of these low-ranked items, but if the price difference is low, I will still buy organic. Less pesticide, herbicide, and fungicide spraying is better for the environment, for animals, for farm workers and me). (I do grow my own onions, asparagus, peas and eggplant).

I grow baby lettuce greens, because they are so pricey in the store and highly contaminated. I grow tomatoes, because nothing compares to a home-grown tomato (ranked 29 of 1 to 45). I grow eggplants because I love all the cool new varieties and I adore roasted eggplant! I grow onions because I think they are fun!

Hope that gives you a little guidance.

Happy gardening!