Big agribusiness hates it when we talk dirty. The Dirty Dozen that is, EWG's list of fresh fruits and vegetables that are most likely to carry pesticide residues.

Big agribusiness is up in arms over The Dirty Dozen, Environmental Working Group's list of fresh fruits and vegetables that are most likely to carry pesticide residues.

At least 5,000 Americans - most of them young children, the elderly and the sick - die every year from eating contaminated food, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And about 76 million get sick from ingesting food-borne pathogens.

At least 5,000 Americans – most of them young children, the elderly and the sick – die every year from eating contaminated food, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And about 76 million get sick from ingesting food-borne pathogens.

If you like your fruits and vegetables with pesticides, then you’ll be glad to know the conventional produce industry is boasting of a big win with the Obama administration.

We're all used to hearing Big Food and Big Ag brag about America having "the safest food supply in the world," usually as a warm-up for complaining that EWG and other critics of our food system are, well, out to lunch. But the facts about food safety - food poisoning in particular - are nothing for the richest country in the world to crow about.

Over the past decade, organic produce sales have soared from 3 percent of the retail produce market in the U.S. in 2000 to nearly 11 percent last year, to $9.5 billion. According to surveys by the Organic Trade Association, organic produce’s precipitous trajectory barely slowed when the global financial crisis took hold in late 2008.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A review of research conducted by independent laboratories and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) shows that one of the most widespread and hazardous contaminants known to science enters the human body early in life at levels far higher than the EPA deems safe.

After nearly 30 years of delays caused by pressure from chemicals and defense industries, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is moving forward on setting a safety limit for exposure to dioxin, a ubiquitous, highly toxic and carcinogenic chemical that people of all ages ingest daily with their food – starting at a mother’s breast.