Buying Organic Produce

Many people believe that buying organic produce is essential to their health and well-being – not to mention that organic produce is often tastier than non-organic. Buying organic produce means purchasing fruits and vegetables that are grown with less pesticides and with natural fertilizer (as opposed to synthetic). In America, if produce has a USDA Certified Organic label, consumers can be sure that they are buying fruits or vegetables that are at least 95% organic.

Although buying organic is an excellent idea, much organic produce is more expensive than its non-organic counterpart. If you're interested in saving money at the grocery store, but still want to be as green as possible, it's important to know which fruits and vegetables are most likely to be contaminated by pesticides -- and therefore are more important to buy organic.

The fruits that are most likely to be contaminated are:

• Apples

• Apricots

• Cherries

• Grapes

• Nectarines

• Peaches

• Red raspberries

• Strawberries

The vegetables that are most likely to be contaminated are:

• Celery

• Green beans

• Peppers

• Spinach

Note that most of these are fruits and vegetables whose skin is consumed, and therefore it's important to think about what kinds of pesticides and fertilizer they have been treated with. Remember, always wash your produce before eating it – even if you've bought organic – because even organic fruits and vegetables can have some residual pesticides or fertilizer on their skins.