With the farming industry beginning to realize that demand for organic and biodynamic food is not a fashion but an educative choice of a fast growing number of consumers, the supply of healthy food will continue to grow and premium pricing for organic and biodynamic foods will continue to drop.

When consumers have no chance of buying healthy organic and biodynamic food, it is important that they stay informed of the safety of conventional foods which they’re limited to at hand. The Environmental Working Group has produced Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides, a research of better and worst cases of non-organic foods measured by the content of pesticide residues in conventional (industrial or chemical) fruits and veggies. So, what is still relatively safe our of the non-organic foods?

Copied under CC from EWG’s Food News:

The Full List: 47 Fruits & Veggies

click here to print the printer-friendly full list.

RANK FRUIT OR VEGGIE SCORE
1 (worst) Peach 100 (highest pesticide load)
2 Apple 93
3 Sweet Bell Pepper 83
4 Celery 82
5 Nectarine 81
6 Strawberries 80
7 Cherries 73
8 Kale 69
9 Lettuce 67
10 Grapes – Imported 66
11 Carrot 63
12 Pear 63
13 Collard Greens 60
14 Spinach 58
15 Potato 56
16 Green Beans 53
17 Summer Squash 53
18 Pepper 51
19 Cucumber 50
20 Raspberries 46
21 Grapes – Domestic 44
22 Plum 44
23 Orange 44
24 Cauliflower 39
25 Tangerine 37
26 Mushrooms 36
27 Banana 34
28 Winter Squash 34
29 Cantaloupe 33
30 Cranberries 33
31 Honeydew Melon 30
32 Grapefruit 29
33 Sweet Potato 29
34 Tomato 29
35 Broccoli 28
36 Watermelon 26
37 Papaya 20
38 Eggplant 20
39 Cabbage 17
40 Kiwi 13
41 Sweet Peas – Frozen 10
42 Asparagus 10
43 Mango 9
44 Pineapple 7
45 Sweet Corn – Frozen 2
46 Avocado 1
47 (best) Onion 1 (lowest pesticide load)

Note: We ranked a total of 47 different fruits and vegetables but grapes are listed twice because we looked at both domestic and imported samples.

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