Organically grown foods have become increasingly popular as public concerns about healthful diet, safety of the food supply and the effects of agricultural practices on the environment continue to rise. Organic produce costs more than conventionally raised products and many of us cannot afford the prices. Because of their high nutrient content, as your mother and your doctor will remind you, you still need to eat your veggies, and the United States Department of Agriculture says, "Eating conventionally-grown produce is far better than not eating...vegetables at all.... The health benefits...outweigh the risks."
A Grocery Shopper's Guide
The Environmental Research Group is an anti-pollution nonprofit based in Washington DC, Iowa and California. In addition to lobbying, the group maintains databases and gives evidence-based advice. Each year it publishes research on pesticides in produce by distributing two lists, "The Dirty Dozen" -- fruits and vegetables with the highest levels of pesticide residue, and "The Clean 15" -- crops having the least residue. These 15 are the fruits and vegetables that do not need to be organic.
The Clean 15
The conventionally-grown vegetables with the lowest amount of pesticide residue are onions, sweet corn, avocados, asparagus, sweet peas, eggplants, cabbages, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms. Even though you might not think of veggies as capable of setting up fortifications, they have their ways of defending themselves against chemically-formulated fertilizers, growth stimulants, antibiotics or pesticides. There are additional vegetables, not listed, using similar protective methods.
Vegetable Defenses
Avocados and eggplants, two of the clean 15, have skins thick enough to fend off chemical spray. So do winter squash, rutabagas, plantains, almonds and other nuts. Other produce has rinds. Peas have pods; corn has husks; and cabbage is compact when stripped of outer leaves, along with dirt and bacteria, before eating. Onions make their own fungicide. So do leeks and garlic. Marigolds, herbs and spices manufacture natural pesticides. Asparagus makes an enzyme that degrades the insecticide malathion.
Considerations
According to the U. S. Food and Drug Administration, always rinse fresh vegetables in running water even if you are going to peel them. A water stream is more abrasive and therefore more effective in ridding the skins of germs, fertilizers and dirt than simply dipping or soaking. You may want to use a brush. If you don't wash produce, your knife or peeler may transfer unwanted substances into the parts of the vegetables you are going to eat.
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