Working in the food world, I get asked this a lot. My answer? Sometimes.
I don’t always have access to organic, price is prohibitive or the quality isn’t great. Other times I prefer to buy local over organic – it may be organic but how far has it travelled? There are many factors influencing my buying decision.
If you’re considering buying organic, a great way to start is by considering the clean 15 and dirty dozen lists, prioritising the dirty dozen in your purchases.
The dirty dozen is a list of produce where pesticide use is high whilst the clean 15 list highlights produce that contains virtually no traces of pesticides despite conventional growing methods. The list is updated annually, so it’s worth keeping an eye on what’s on there.