Go organic or no

Toronto Star, Staff
Published July 17, 2003

Here's one way to decide whether to spend the extra money on organic produce.

Consider the particular food's tendency to contain residual pesticides.

Select organic when purchasing fruits and vegetables that tend to carry high loads of pesticides and choose conventional when selecting foods that tend to rate low in pesticides.

Here are lists of foods rated by the Environmental Working Group, a U.S. not-for-profit environmental research organization.

Foods That Tend to Be High in Pesticides:

Apples, cherries, grapes (imported), peaches, pears, red raspberries, strawberries, bell peppers, celery, hot peppers, potatoes, spinach.

Foods That Tend to Be Low in Pesticides:

Avocados, bananas, blueberries, grapefruit, papaya, kiwi, pineapples, plantains, plums, watermelon, mangoes, asparagus.