FINCHforum

I've made a point to buy only organic greens and the occasional fruit for my birds, but I know that not everyone has such easy access to organic foods.

So for what it's worth, I thought I'd pass along this outstanding food table listing fruits and vegetables both alphabetically and by ranking, in terms of their pesticide exposure. It was researched and compiled by the good folks at the Environmental Working Group -- one of the most truly worthwhile consumer advocate groups I've ever run across. Hope someone can find this to be of use....not just for their birds, but for themselves as well.

http://www.foodnews.org/fulllist.php

BTW.....just wanted to add that because this site is run by a non-profit group, sometimes a donation prompt will pop up when you first visit this site. If that happens, just click the red "continue" button at upper right of page to go on to the produce rankings. (No, I have no affiliation with this group whatsoever, I promise....nor do I even know anyone who works there. Am just a believer in their good work.)

Good to know!!!

My front door organic bin normally doesn't give onions, so I buy them on the side. It's nice to know I don't have to worry about them that much!

Yeah, not that any of us are feeding onions to our birds!! LOL But after all, we've got to keep ourselves healthy first if we're going to be able to properly care for our birds, right?

Notably, a couple of the more common items many of us feed to our finches -- kale and spinach -- also happen to rank in the bottom quarter of the list.

If you notice, many of the least-risky (such as onions) are items you peel, presumably eliminating much of the pesticide in the peeling -- just basic common sense I suppose. And many of the items most prone to pesticide exposure (apples, strawberries, blueberries, etc.) are those that we eat without peeling. There are a few exceptions to this general rule, of course.

Even with the least-risky items, though.....unless you wash the item thoroughly BEFORE peeling, you still run the risk of cross-contaminating the peeled item from pesticide residue that collected on your hands during the peeling process. Or maybe I'm just thinking too much again.