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How to Buy Organic Produce on a Budget

What to Spring for, What to Skip

Apr 6, 2009 Shelby Miller

Buying organic is still a little pricier than the alternative. Here are some recommendations on what foods in the produce section you should spring for.

Thanks to the recent explosion in the organic food movement, odds are your local grocery or produce market offers a burgeoning selection of organic fruits and vegetables alongside its regular produce. And while the overall cost to the taxpayer of shopping organic is actually lower, it still costs a bit more on the shelf. This is because organic food typically costs more to produce, since organic growers cannot use the cheap chemical pesticides and fertilizers utilized by their industrial counterparts.

So what is a budget-conscious shopper to do? The good news is that many of the fruits and vegetables you already buy do not pose a high risk of exposure to pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides---namely those you peel before eating, like bananas. Others, however, can carry traces of these chemicals that can be harmful to the human body, and therefore it may be prudent to choose organic over conventionally grown products.

Best Produce to Buy Organic

According to the April 2009 issue of Cooking Light, here are the fruits and vegetables most likely to contain pesticide residues, and therefore the ones you should try to buy organic:

Apples
Potatoes
Lettuce
Cherries
Bell Peppers
Strawberries
Celery
Spinach
Carrots
Peaches
Nectarines

Because all of the foods listed above are relatively commonplace, you should be able to find organic options at most supermarkets. However, you’ll optimize your odds if you look for these foods when they’re in season where you live. Check your state’s Department of Agriculture website for information on seasonality of locally grown produce, or visit your local farmers’ market.

Foods that are Safe to Buy Conventional

Here are the fruits and vegetables that Cooking Light has deemed safest to buy in their conventional form due to decreased risk of pesticide contamination:

Pineapples
Eggplant
Asparagus
Onions
Broccoli
Mangoes
Kiwi
Bananas
Avocados
Cabbage

While several of these foods (such as tropical fruit) will necessarily have to travel long distances to reach your grocer’s produce section, many can be found locally. Buying produce locally, even conventionally farmed produce, can often be a smarter environmental choice than buying organic from chain supermarkets like Walmart or even Whole Foods, as many organic foods require long-distance shipping from where they’re produced.

And as mentioned above, buying fruits and vegetables when they’re in season (like asparagus in spring) is a sustainable and wallet-friendly option. Not only will you be supporting local farmers, but you can usually buy seasonal fruits and vegetables at a farmers’ market more cheaply than you can at the grocery store.

Source: "How to Buy the Best Organic Foods," by Maureen Callahan, R.D., in Cooking Light, April 2009.

The copyright of the article How to Buy Organic Produce on a Budget in Nutrition is owned by Shelby Miller. Permission to republish How to Buy Organic Produce on a Budget in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.