Environmental Working Group has released their 2012 Dirty Dozen of most contaminated fruits and vegetables, and their Clean Fifteen list of foods with the least amount of pesticide contamination. Note that this is pesticide, not herbicide. We need other lists for herbicides, alas. This link goes to the summary and charts.
There is now a "Plus" group for foods that are not in the dirty dozen but have special concerns:
This year we have expanded the Dirty Dozen with a Plus category to highlight two crops -- green beans and leafy greens, meaning, kale and collard greens - that did not meet traditional Dirty Dozen criteria but were commonly contaminated with highly toxic organophosphate insecticides. These insecticides are toxic to the nervous system and have been largely removed from agriculture over the past decade. But they are not banned and still show up on some food crops.
Which is why I always, always buy organic! I DON'T BUY if there is no organic available. I was getting a sticky ring from cooking kale that had to be scrubbed off pots by hand with a Brillo pad or my trusty cherry pit scour stuff. Now I know what it was, and pray I'm not damaged by it.
Think organic -- and vote for it.
There is now a "Plus" group for foods that are not in the dirty dozen but have special concerns:
This year we have expanded the Dirty Dozen with a Plus category to highlight two crops -- green beans and leafy greens, meaning, kale and collard greens - that did not meet traditional Dirty Dozen criteria but were commonly contaminated with highly toxic organophosphate insecticides. These insecticides are toxic to the nervous system and have been largely removed from agriculture over the past decade. But they are not banned and still show up on some food crops.
Which is why I always, always buy organic! I DON'T BUY if there is no organic available. I was getting a sticky ring from cooking kale that had to be scrubbed off pots by hand with a Brillo pad or my trusty cherry pit scour stuff. Now I know what it was, and pray I'm not damaged by it.
Think organic -- and vote for it.