EWG.org

For the first time in my life, I seem to be getting along with food geeks. I'm not sure if it is because I am meeting moderate food geeks, because my attitude has changed, or if food geeks in general have learned that educating people like me is a lot more effective than telling me I am wrong. Of course - it may be that I'm talking about 2/2 people and don't have a large enough sample size...

I met a vegan named Ann at movie night last night... She explained some of the things I have scoffed at in terms that I am not scoffing at. Anyway she handed me the url for a website to check out - http://www.ewg.org/. I am just starting to check it out and will add notes as I accumulate them, but lets start with tuna:

I eat a lot of tuna. It is a very fast easy fill'er'up meal. Well, after reading this, I don't think I want to buy tuna once I run out:
http://www.ewg.org/tunacalculator?lbs=205&sex=male

Ann had a card which itemized the "dirty dozen" of produce - gives a good focus on what produce items I need to care about buying organic compared to others. Two of my favorites - apples and bell peppers rank 2nd and 3rd worst. Damn. http://www.foodnews.org/ - odd, not sure why ewg directly links another site like that...

After looking at the data for the dirty dozen - I don't agree with the way they rank them - and fortunately for me, they provide enough data where I can sort them the way I find most logical.
Their method: They aggregate the scores for percentage of samples with detectable pesticides, two or more pesticides, average number of pesticides found - etc. Well they have a number for average amount in ppm of all pesticides found, and if you ask me THAT number is really the only one with consequence:

That said, here is an example, bell peppers, which changed considerably:
My Rank: 22
Old Rank: 3 (third worst out of 45)
Sweet Bell Peppers
Combined Score: 86 (this is where I think they're being silly)
Detectable Pesticides: 81.50%
Two or More Pesticides: 62.20%
Average # of Pesticides: 2.4
Average total pesticides PPM: 0.138 (this is the number I think is important)
Max # of pesticides found: 11
# pesticides found on commodity: 64

The last 20 items ranked on pesticides PPM have considerably less pesticides than the others at 0.057ppm or less, so I'll use this as my "safe enough" group.
Cucumbers, Mango, Grapefruit, Papaya, Carrots, Tomatoes, Bananas, Cantaloupe, Asparagus, Watermelons, Winter Squash, Eggplant, Honeydew Melon, Sweet Peas - Frozen, Sweet Corn - Frozen, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Pineapples, Avocado, Onions (carrots go from 13 to 30 this way).

The worst ranked using my method is Potatoes, Spinach, Peaches, Raspberries, and Apples.

Ooooh, cool article! --> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24230246/?pg=10#dtl_toxic