New Dirty Dozen and Other Weekend Links

The big news is that EWG published their new Dirty Dozen (and Clean Fifteen). Here is the cute printable guide. I prefer to print out the full list. Each year, EWG ranks pesticide contamination of popular fruits and vegetables based on their analysis of 51,000 tests for pesticides on these foods, conducted by the USDA and the FDA. You can read more about the methodology here.  A few facts that will make your head spin (from EWG):

• As a category. peaches have been treated with more pesticides than any other produce, registering combinations of up to 57 different chemicals. Apples were next, with 56 pesticides and raspberries with 51.
• A single celery sample was contaminated with 13 different chemicals, followed by a single sample of sweet bell peppers (11), and greens (10).

If you value this kind of information, please sign EWG's petition telling the USDA to stop funding a California-based pro-pesticide, big agriculture group, which has accused EWG of discouraging produce consumption (P.S. The USDA has also not yet released the latest pesticide residue data). Consumers aren't smart enough to make up their own minds about pesticides, so the argument goes, and all this information just scares them unnecessarily! This is the same argument used for not labeling GMOs, by the way.  If only we could actually trust the USDA to make decisions in the public interest, instead of acting like the lap dog of Big Ag.  In the meantime, give me the information please.

In other breaking news, the USDA has replaced the Food Pyramid with My Plate.  Definitely more useful, but personally I won't be looking to the USDA for eating advice anytime soon.  Check out this awesome comparison of what the USDA recommends you eat versus what foods they subsidize.  Love that USDA!

A few more reads:

Another reason to eat organic meat.

Tips for avoiding food poisoning without toxic chemicals.

And a fun instead of depressing one: finds at the antique shop!

Happy Father's Day!