The Environmental Protection Agency reports that two-thirds of American farmers spray one billion pounds of pesticides onto our food crops each year.
What You Should Know
- There is twice as much carbon in the earth's fertile soil as there is carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The carbon in the soil is stored by millions of microorganisms that live in the soil and naturally keep it rich year after year. Organic farmers make use of this naturally rich soil to produce the food we put on our tables.
- Too many farmers today use chemical pesticides to grow crops bigger and faster instead of naturally controlling pests. As a result, the billions of microorganisms that live in the soil and keep it full of nutrients die off. When they die, they release their stored carbon into the atmosphere, where it turns into carbon dioxide. Eventually, their bodies rot and release methane, a global warming gas that is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Furthermore, after these organisms die, they can no longer keep the soil naturally fertile, so farmers are forced to use chemical fertilizers year after year in order to grow their crops.
- Organically grown food has been scientifically proven to contain more nutrients than the same food grown by conventional farming methods (i.e., using pesticides). Organic food contains, on average, 30% more magnesium, 27% more vitamin C, and 21% more iron than pesticide-grown food. More important, you're guaranteed that organic food has 100% fewer pesticides and toxic chemicals than conventionally grown food does.
Easy Things You Can Do
Buy organically grown food. Organic food is healthier for you, but eating it is also healthier for the planet. In doing so, you'll support farmers and companies that grow their food organically, which means without the use of any chemical pesticides, fertilizers, or hormones, and in a sustainable manner (i.e., using crop rotation). A good way to start buying organic food is to switch to an organic variety of just one thing you eat frequently, such as carrots, coffee, or chicken. Thanks to its recent popularity, organic food is becoming more widely available and cost competitive every day.Know which organic foods are the most important to buy for your health, especially when your selection is limited. To help you identify the best and worst produce, get to know the Environmental Working Group's 4th edition of the popular Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce, available from the organization's website at http://www.foodnews.org/, to help you minimize your chemical exposure in the produce aisle. It features the 12 fruits and veggies with the most and least pesticides so you'll know which ones to buy organic, and which conventionally-grown ones are okay when organic isn't available. The guide is based on an extensive study of 43 produce items, this is the full list:
The Full List: 43 Fruits & Veggies
| RANK | FRUIT OR VEGGIE | SCORE |
| 1 (worst) | Peaches | 100 (highest pesticide load) |
| 2 | Apples | 89 |
| 3 | Sweet Bell Peppers | 86 |
| 4 | Celery | 85 |
| 5 | Nectarines | 84 |
| 6 | Strawberries | 82 |
| 7 | Cherries | 75 |
| 8 | Pears | 65 |
| 9 | Grapes - Imported | 65 |
| 10 | Spinach | 60 |
| 11 | Lettuce | 59 |
| 12 | Potatoes | 58 |
| 13 | Carrots | 57 |
| 14 | Green Beans | 53 |
| 15 | Hot Peppers | 53 |
| 16 | Cucumbers | 52 |
| 17 | Raspberries | 47 |
| 18 | Plums | 45 |
| 19 | Grapes - Domestic | 43 |
| 20 | Oranges | 42 |
| 21 | Grapefruit | 40 |
| 22 | Tangerine | 38 |
| 23 | Mushrooms | 37 |
| 24 | Cantaloupe | 34 |
| 25 | Honeydew Melon | 31 |
| 26 | Tomatoes | 30 |
| 27 | Sweet Potatoes | 30 |
| 28 | Watermelon | 28 |
| 29 | Winter Squash | 27 |
| 30 | Cauliflower | 27 |
| 31 | Blueberries | 24 |
| 32 | Papaya | 21 |
| 33 | Broccoli | 18 |
| 34 | Cabbage | 17 |
| 35 | Bananas | 16 |
| 36 | Kiwi | 14 |
| 37 | Sweet peas - frozen | 11 |
| 38 | Asparagus | 11 |
| 39 | Mango | 9 |
| 40 | Pineapples | 7 |
| 41 | Sweet Corn - frozen | 2 |
| 42 | Avocado | 1 |
| 43 (best) | Onions | 1 (lowest pesticide load) |
Note: We ranked a total of 43 different fruits and vegetables but grapes are listed twice because we looked at both domestic and imported samples.
Source: Environmental Working Group,and 51 Easy Ways You can Prevent Global Warming (and save money!) by Jeffrey Langholz, Ph.D., and Kelly Turner