Pocket Shopper's Guide to Pesticides

This is a handy Pocket Guide to Pesticides. It's ready to print, cut out and keep with you while shopping. In my area organic can be difficult to come by and rather expensive so we try to shop smart and have started an organic garden for our family and friends. The full PDF can be downloaded at http://www.foodnews.org/

From their website: The growing consensus among scientists is that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can cause lasting damage to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood. Scientists now know enough about the long-term consequences of ingesting these powerful chemicals to advise that we minimize our consumption of pesticides.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has found that people who eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day from their "Dirty Dozen" list consume an average of 10 pesticides a day. This is 8 more than if the 15 least contaminated are eat instead. The data used to create this list is based on produce tested as it is typically eaten (washed, rinsed or peeled depending on type of produce). This guide helps consumers make informed choices to lower the amount of pesticides consumed. Data was used from 89,000 tests between 2000 and 2008 collected by the US Dep OF Agriculture and the US Food and Drug Administration.