EWG Shopper's Guide: An Apple a Day? As Long As It's Organic

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) recently published the 2011 Shopper's Guide, which rates produce according to their pesticide loads. (For a pdf of the list, click here.)

Recognizing that not everyone can afford, nor wants, to only eat organic produce, the group publishes the guide so people can make more informed decisions about organic versus conventional when buying their food.

“Though buying organic is always the best choice, we know that sometimes people do not have access to that produce or cannot afford it,” said EWG President Ken Cook. “Our guide helps consumers concerned about pesticides to make better choices among conventional produce, and lets them know which fruits and vegetables they may want to buy organic.” - from EWG Press Release

According to the EWG, if you choose to eat your five servings of fruits and vegetables from the Clean 15 list, you can lower the volume of pesticides you consume by 92 percent, and you will be ingesting fewer types of pesticides as well.

Guess what debuted at the number one spot on the dirty dozen list this year (last year it was celery). Yep, it's the apple. So if you're going to eat one of those a day to keep the doctor away, you might want to make it organic.

Photo source: This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: Fruit picking, aka SAS training