Avoiding Pesticides

We all know that chemical pesticides are harmful to us and the environment.

Eating organic makes sense for health reasons for ourselves and our farmers, and for environmental reasons - which ultimately affect us in many ways. No pesticides means cleaner air, water and soil. It means healthy soil that can produce healthy and abundant food now and in the future. It means one less threat to animals and the balance of their places in the ecosystems we depend on for all our needs. It means less oil dependency, since oil is used in pesticide manufacturing. It means less costs to society in terms of sickness and cleaning up the environment. It means more security, when our food can come from healthy soils without extensive and expensive chemical inputs.

I'm very excited to share, that after many years of wanting to experience this, I'm going to be working full-time on an organic CSA farm this summer!

Organic can cost more. I find myself buying some things organic and some not, depending on my budget and the availability of the produce.

A good resource for the less than 100% organic buyer is the Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen lists. You can download the list to your phone, or use the printable sheet to keep in your wallet or purse.

The Dirty Dozen ranks fruits n veggies that you should buy organic if at all possible - these had the most pesticide residues when tested. The Clean Fifteen are those that had the least.

According to EWG's calculations, switching 5 servings of fruits and veggies from the dirty list to organic ones or those from the clean list can decrease your pesticide intake by 92% and decrease the number of different pesticides you eat from 14 to 2!