The Pesticide Pack

Organic farming is gentler on the planet and minimizes our exposure to pesticides and other chemicals utilized in conventional farming to maximize growth conditions and output.

It's funny -- what we now call organic farming WAS conventional farming decades ago.

While ideally we would always have access to -- and money to spend on -- purely organic produce, I realize this is not the case for everyone.

Lucky for us, the non-profit Environmental Working Group conducted 43,000 tests over the course of five years (2000 - 2005) to determine what fruits and vegetables carry the highest pesticide load (AKA which ones you should always try to go organic for).

The top ten offenders, in order, are:

Peaches
Apples
Sweet bell peppers
Celery
Nectarines
Strawberries
Cherries
Lettuce
Imported Grapes
Pears

The safest?

Onions
Avocados
Frozen sweet corn
Pineapples
Mangos
Frozen sweet peas
Asparagus