Yummy! Pesticides, slurp ;-)

In my ongoing craziness to find out far more information then is most likely good for me, I came across this site foodnews.org. They had this very helpful chart (see below) showing which "conventionally" grown fruits have the most pesticides in them. Peach and Pesticide Cobbler, anyone?

The Full List: 43 Fruits & Veggies

RANK	FRUIT OR VEGGIE	SCORE
1 (worst)	Peaches	100 (highest pesticide load)
2	Apples	96
3	Sweet Bell Peppers	86
4	Celery	85
5	Nectarines	84
6	Strawberries	83
7	Cherries	75
8	Lettuce	69
9	Grapes - Imported	68
10	Pears	65
11	Spinach	60
12	Potatoes	58
13	Carrots	57
14	Green Beans	55
15	Hot Peppers	53
16	Cucumbers	52
17	Raspberries	47
18	Plums	46
19	Oranges	46
20	Grapes-Domestic	46
21	Cauliflower	39
22	Tangerine	38
23	Mushrooms	37
24	Cantaloupe	34
25	Lemon	31
26	Honeydew Melon	31
27	Grapefruit	31
28	Winter Squash	31
29	Tomatoes	30
30	Sweet Potatoes	30
31	Watermelon	25
32	Blueberries	24
33	Papaya	21
34	Eggplant	19
35	Broccoli	18
36	Cabbage	17
37	Bananas	16
38	Kiwi	14
39	Asparagus	11
40	Sweet Peas-Frozen	11
41	Mango	9
42	Pineapples	7
43	Sweet Corn-Frozen	2
44	Avocado	1
45 (best)	Onions	1 (lowest pesticide load)

Note: We ranked a total of 44 different fruits and vegetables but grapes are listed twice because we looked at both domestic and imported samples.

Just another reason to stay local and organic when you can. Apples, my favorite and really the only Winter eating fruit, comes in as #2, so maybe soon I will be radioactive and glowing. I buy all my apples locally, and am told by the farmers that they do very little spraying and use green products when they do. This is the conundrum about buying local, when farmers don't have the money to pay for the organic certification. Apples that I have seen at the market that are local and organic look pretty bad; now I understand this is not just about looks, but I am sorry to say that sometimes I choose the non-organic local apples because I am a sucker for the better looking ones. It does tell you how much apples have changed in their look since they were first planted (mostly for hard cider) in this country. Apples that are just going to be pressed for juice can be as ugly as they want to be, but eating seems to be another issue. Just goes to show you that even when you are trying to eat healthy, locally, and sustainably you are still making choices as to how far you are actually willing to go. The bottom line for me is that I'd rather support a farmer who is local then some large corporate food producer in California or Chile.