Is it worth the price to buy organic produce?
Pueblo Chieftain, Mary Jean Porter
Published April 22, 2008
Yes, say devotees who are willing to pay extra for the reassurance that their fruits and vegetables aren't genetically modified and contain smaller amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Organic food tastes better, too, they say.
But $4-a-pound better for green bell peppers?
That's debatable.
The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C., offers an online tool that might help soothe the sting of high-price organics. The informational "Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce" rates the 12 "worst" and 12 "best" fruits and vegetables in terms of pesticide residue. The guide is excerpted from a longer ranking of 46 produce items, which the site states was developed using data from more than 50,000 tests for pesticides on produce collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration between 2000 and 2005.
Topping what the site calls the "dirty dozen" are peaches at No. 1, followed by apples and sweet bell peppers at 2 and 3. Onions are the produce item that's lowest in pesticide residue; avocados and frozen sweet corn are the next best, according to the guide.
The guide suggests spending your organic-produce dollars -- if the selection of organic produce items is limited -- on the foods more likely to contain pesticide residues when conventionally grown. The "Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce" is located at
www.foodnews.org . Two state employees working in plant industry said they aren't familiar with the produce-and-pesticides guide.
Mike Bartolo, director of the Colorado State University Agricultural Research Station at Rocky Ford, looked at the guide, then said: "It doesn't have a lot of scientific background with it. I don't disagree with it, but without seeing the original studies, I can't comment. My concern is some of those vegetables could be problematic -- there's always that potential -- but we have an excellent track record here. We don't have the amount of pest pressure that they do in some other areas. On the whole, we use considerably less pesticides on the crops we grow here. Onions, peppers, melons we can actually produce very well with little or no pesticides because of our climate."
Bartolo said that some fruits and vegetables, by nature of the part of the plant you eat, may contain pesticide residues.
"Some are sprayed more often, and some you eat those parts that are sprayed. Some root crops may not retain any pesticides, but some leafy ones like lettuce may."
Bartolo said it's a good idea to buy locally grown produce and to wash it well. Another reason to buy local, he said, is if you're buying produce imported from Mexico or South America, it might have been grown with chemicals that are outlawed in this country.
Mitch Yergert, director of the Colorado Department of Agriculture's plant industry division, also said he isn't familiar with the shopper's guide put out by the Environmental Working Group.
"I haven't ever seen a list like this," Yergert said. "We do participate in the pesticide data program, under the USDA. We go out and collect different products to test for pesticide residues to see if they exceed tolerances."
After looking at the online guide, Yergert said it includes a number of products that the USDA's pesticide data program doesn't sample for, so the two can't really be compared.
"They (Environmental Working Group) are giving a score but not saying whether the product exceeds tolerances."
Yergert said he doesn't see validity in the guide because it "doesn't factor in the risk, doesn't factor in if a product exceeds tolerances. If it doesn't, there shouldn't be a problem.
"Also, some foods end up with more pest pressure and they may be sprayed more."
A summary of pesticide data program results is available at
www.ams.usda.gov/ science/pdp.
One problem with the guide, for Southern Coloradans who are trying to eat both local and organic food, is that five of the "best" 12 -- avocados, pineapples, mangos, kiwi and bananas -- aren't grown anywhere near this area. All of the produce on the "worst" list, with the exception of imported grapes, is grown in Colorado.
PESTICIDES IN PRODUCE
Worst: Peaches Apples Sweet bell peppers Celery Nectarines Strawberries Cherries Lettuce Grapes (imported) Pears Spinach Potatoes
Best: Onions Avocado Sweet corn (frozen) Pineapples Mango Sweet peas (frozen) Asparagus Kiwi Bananas Cabbage Broccoli Eggplant
- Courtesy of Environmental Working Group,
www.ewg.org
COMPARING PRICES
Sometimes there's not that great a price difference between conventionally grown and organic produce.
- A check late last week found gala apples for $1.89 a pound at a local supermarket and $2.29 a pound at a natural foods store that specializes in organic produce; Pink Lady apples were $2.99 at the supermarket and $1.99 (on sale) at the natural foods store.
- Lettuce was priced at $1.29 a bunch for red or green leaf or romaine at the supermarket, while it was $1.79 for red leaf, $1.59 for green leaf and $1.89 for romaine at the second store.
- The price gap was larger for broccoli: $1.27 a pound at the supermarket, and $2.99 a pound for organic broccoli at the natural foods store.
