The Dirty Dozen and The Clean 15

[Mudman]

My wife is in a fitness class and recently received this list. I think it relates to the amount? of pesticides used on produce.

The Dirty Dozen-
Peach
Apple
Celery
Bell Pepper
Nectarine
Strawberries
Cherries
Kale
Lettuce
Grapes
Carrots
Pears

The Clean 15-
Onion
Avocado
Sweet Corn
Pinapple
Mango
Asparagus
Sweet Peas
Kiwi
Cabbage
Eggplant
Papaya
Watermelon
Broccoli
Tomato
Sweet Potato

I thought maybe some of the growers would be able to shed some light on this list. Do you agree? Seems odd to me that kale is dirty and both cabbage and broccoli are clean. Wouldn't they all need similar pest and disease control? Same with tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers. I have fruit trees so I understand that. I'm just a home gardener but I often look with skeptical eyes at lists like this.

[husker nana]

http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/index.jsp

This is a pretty interesting site that your wife may be interested in. Pretty scary stuff.

Originally Posted by husker nana

http://www.whatsonmyfood.org/index.jsp

This is a pretty interesting site that your wife may be interested in. Pretty scary stuff.

Thanks for that link.

[habitat_gardener]

Probably the list comes from Environmental Working Group and is based on testing for pesticide residues.

[Wi-sunflower]

I would be skeptical of both Eggplant and asparagus due to my own experiences.

I got into the vegie biz due to Hubby's family being commercial growers of Asparagus for Stokley. Both Herbicide and insecticide were sprayed regularly.

Eggplant is a Colorado Potato Beetle magnet. The only way to get decent production is to spray the heck out of the CPB with some pretty toxic stuff. BT is only marginally effective. We've tried most everything out there some years with only mixed results. We've even resorted to just walking the rows and squishing them. But that gets old fast when you have several thousand plants, not to mention rather gross when there are a lot of them.

As far as the Kale goes, it could be that it gets sprayed for flea beetles besides the loopers. Plus the fact that with cabbage you are eating stuff that is "interior" vs leaves that have full contact with any chemicals.

JMO,
Carol

[Mudman]

Thanks for the info Carol, it all makes sense to me. I thought maybe each type of produce probably had different pest than its relatives, especially in a large scale setting.