2019 Dirty Dozen//Clean Fifteen

It's time to print off a new Dirty Dozen/Clean Fifteen card for your wallet! This fantastic, quick and easy, guide offers a great reference where best to spend your organic grocery dollars, if you aren't able to go all in on organics (like most families on a budget).

Click over and Get the Guide

The Dirty Dozen is a list of the most highly contaminated fruits and veggies - buying these items organic is a higher priority, if you are working to keep your diet clean.

We are proud to bring you organic apples, as they are always a high-ranking item on the Dirty Dozen list. This year apples rank #5, alongside a couple other A.R.F. specialties kale (#3) and tomatoes (#10).

Apples

"Apples are generally near the top of EWG’s Dirty Dozen™ list because they contain an average of 4.4 pesticide residues, including some at high concentrations..."

"...most conventionally grown apples are drenched in diphenylamine, an antioxidant chemical treatment used to prevent the skin of apples in cold storage from developing brown or black patches..."

"The European officials' concerns center on the possible formation of nitrosamines on diphenylamine-treated fruit. Nitrosamines cause cancer in laboratory animals, and some studies have found that people who eat foods with nitrosamines have elevated rates of stomach and esophageal cancers."

Kale

"More Than Half of Kale Samples Tainted by Possibly Cancer-Causing Pesticide"

"Conventional kale farming relies heavily on the use of several synthetic pesticides, including Dacthal. The EPA’s 1995 classification of it as a possible carcinogen noted increases in liver and thyroid tumors. Dacthal can also cause other kinds of harm to the lungs, liver, kidney and thyroid."

Go Organic

We are proud to bring you clean-eating, local organic produce. We believe it is the best thing for a healthy lifestyle and a healthy environment. Reseach supports this.

"A French study published in December in JAMA Internal Medicine, a journal from the American Medical Association, found that among nearly 69,000 participants, those with the highest frequency of organic food consumption had 25 percent fewer cancers than individuals who did not eat organic food."

"...the most recent of several studies evaluating the impact of an organic diet found that after only six days of eating organic food, adults and children had on average a 60 percent reduction in the levels of synthetic pesticides measured in their urine..."

Read the full report