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Even if you are not obsessed with healthy eating, it makes sense to avoid foods treated with pesticides and chemical fertilizers. But where to start? Here are the ten most important foods to buy organic:

1. Baby Food

Federal pesticides standards provide too little health protection for infants, according to a National Academy of Sciences report. In 1995 the Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C., conducted laboratory tests of eight industry-leader baby foods and found 16 pesticides, including three carcinogens; 53 percent of samples had detectable pesticide levels. Earth's Best and Well-Fed are two supermarket brands of organic baby food, or make your own by cooking, pureeing and freezing organic fruits and vegetables.

2. Strawberries

A 1993 Environmental Working Group study revealed that supermarket strawberries were the most heavily contaminated fruit or vegetable in the United States. Seventy percent of strawberries tested contained at least one pesticide. On some farms, the strawberries are sprayed with 500 pounds of pesticides per acre. Avoid imported strawberries, which are subject to even less stringent regulations than domestic varieties.

3. Rice

Rice is a major snack ingredient and baby cereal, because few people are allergic to it. But water-soluble herbicides and insecticides have contaminated groundwater near rice fields in California's Sacramento River valley, one of the nation's leading rice-producing regions. Get organic rice from Eagle Agricultural Products, Lundberg Family Farms, or MacDougall's Wild Rice.

4. Oats

A crop-rotation grain used to maintain soil health and break pest cycles, oats aren't always "wholesome." In 1994 the FDA found illegal residues in a year's worth of Cheerios from General Mills, which voluntarily withdrew the contaminated product awaiting shipment. Organic growers provide oats, millett, quinoa, barley, couscous, amaranth, and spelt.

5. Milk

To boost milk production, dairy companies inject cows with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH). Some 79 percent of treated cows get clinical mastitis, a common udder infection. Treating them with antibiotics increases the chance of antibiotic residue in milk. Organic milk is widely available; sales are $50 million to $60 million annually.

6. Bell Peppers

Testing U.S. and Mexican sweet pepper samples in 1992 and 1993, the FDA found six different pesticides; 38 percent of the peppers from Mexico, which provides 98 percent of the U.S. supply, had two or more. Peppers are a definite no-no when it comes to neurotoxins; in EPA studies, the greatest amount of neurotoxin residue, by far, was found in peppers from the United States and Mexico, followed by cantaloupe from Mexico, celery, pears, and green beans.

7. Bananas

Toxic pesticides used during banana production include benomyl (linked to birth defects) and chlorpyrifos (a neurotoxin). In Costa Rica, a major exporter, only 5 percent of cultivated land is used for bananas, but 35 percent of the country's pesticide imports are used on banana crops.

8. Green Beans

More than 60 pesticides are used on green beans. EWG laboratory tests on baby food found three pesticides in green beans, including neurotoxins and an endocrine disruptor. Nearly 10 percent of Mexican green beans are contaminated with illegal pesticides.

9. Peaches

The FDA recently cited peaches for above-average rates of illegal pesticide violations; 5 percent of the crop was contaminated at 80 times the official tolerance level with the pesticide pronamide.

10. Apples

Despite the 1980s battle that banned the use of the carcinogenic alar, 36 different pesticides have been detected on U.S. apples by the FDA, which also found up to seven on a single sample. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture found nine.) The fungicide captan and the insecticide chlorpyrifos were among the 48 pesticides found most frequently in FDA testing between 1984 and 1991. Luckily, apple growers are leading the integrated-pest-management movement, which uses chemicals only as a last resort.

-Francine Stephens and Betsy Lydon

This list courtesy of Mothers and Others for a Liveable Planet.