Prioritizing your organic purchases

My brother in law recently asked me which foods I'd most want to be organic. I've written about this idea before less directly, but it's a good question. While eating mostly organic foods is obviously a great choice as it dramatically reduces toxins in your body, improves soil conditions and the environment generally, tends to provide better lives for farmers and workers, and is less likely to put your money in the hands of multi-national corporations, sometimes you just have to prioritize. So let's assume all you care about is your health -- or your kid's health, and you aren't going to buy 100% organic fruits and vegetables. What should you be sure to buy organic and what can you forget about?

A good reference guide is here. I've compared this list to others and overall the most important produce to buy organic includes (starting with the worst): peaches, apples, peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, grapes, carrots pears, spinach and potatoes. Some of the produce that you can buy conventional and sleep well at night include (starting with the least dangerous): onions, avocados, pineapple, mango, asparagas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant and watermelon. And just to scare you a bit more about just how dangerous and unpredictable pesticide use is, check out this recent article on peaches from the Chicago Tribune.

I would just note a couple other things. One is GMOs. While corn and soybeans don't top the list when it comes to pesticides, they do for GMO use (the VAST majority of corn and soy in the U.S. is genetically modified). GMOs cannot be certified organic. And of course, there are other items to worry about besides produce. To this list I'd say baby food, if relevant (presicides are exponentially more dangerous to small children), milk and dairy (or at least hormone free), and eggs (organic chickens are not given the doses of antibiotics and hormones normally used, and require a slightly better life -- also look for all vegetarian diets).