As a student and someone with a penchant for working in non-profits, I have had to curtail the number of organic items I buy throughout my food-shoping life. I always found it tricky to remember which foods were deemed ‘dirty’, consistently ending up with the highest level of pesticide residue and which were clean…well cleaner that I could rationalize buying non-organic come the end of the month.
A site called foodnews has come out with a very nifty little wallet size shopper’s guide to pesticides in foods, listing the top 10 clean & dirty fruits and vegetables to help you prioritize if necessary when you shop. You can download the card here as well as view an extended list & learn about lots of other interesting food facts.

I love the concept of this card. It’s keeping it real for many of us who can’t just pop into Wholefoods and spend our rent money on organic food. My only complaint is that they don’t consider the ‘carbon’ impact of the foods they list. For example Kiwis are listed as a clean food, one you could risk bying non-organic but they don’t tell you that for every pound of kiwis you eat, 5 lbs of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere getting it to your table so keep that in mind. (have you ever seen kiwi trees growing in your local park?)

A great addition to this would be to join a local food coop -check out our side bar listing- or CSA (community supported agriculture) program and get better, fresher, local food for cheaper.