The Issue
Pesticides
Millions of people rely on EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides in Produce to reduce their exposure to toxic synthetic pesticides used on fruits and vegetables. The alternative is buy organic.
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The Latest on Pesticides
When industry lobbyists want the government to do something the public won’t like, they usually go about it quietly. Not so for the produce and pesticide lobby.
Leading pesticide researchers write FDA, USDA and EPA to call for increased monitoring of pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables, as well as more study of pesticide effects on children.
Read MoreIn a 2010 meeting between the pesticide industry and the Obama Administration, the pesticide industry revealed its objective that government food testing data (like the USDA pesticide residue data EWG uses to create our Shopper's Guide to Produce) be spun to emphasize the safety of pesticide residues on conventional produce.
Read MoreWhen Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) spoke to the Organic Trade Association's Washington Policy Conference the other day, her talk had two parts: the part where she left the distinct impression that she had no idea whom she was talking to, and the part where it seemed she didn't care.
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Coalitions often help bring about real change for the public good. Not this one though.
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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.
Read MoreThe 10 most important stories from EWG's AgMag blog in 2010.
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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.
Read MoreWhether your child eats the school lunch or your own hand-packed version, there's a chance she might not be getting enough fruits and veggies. U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics show that American adults and teens are chronic under-eaters when it comes to produce (shocking, right?).
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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.
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More than 50 organizations concerned about the risks of pesticides to human health and the environment have joined forces to fight California officials' award of a $180,000 taxpayer-funded grant to a chemical agribusiness public relations campaign.
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We are writing to express our serious concern about the recent decision of the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to award a Specialty Crop Block Grant of $180,000 to the Alliance for Food and Farming, an industry communications group. According to CDFA documents, the group intends to use the money to “correct the misconception that some fresh produce items contain excessive amounts of pesticide residues” and to counter “claims by activist groups about unsafe levels of pesticides.”
Read MoreEWG opposes an EPA pesticide office plan for conditional registration of a nanoscale silver chemical known as HeiQ AGS-20 and used as an antimicrobial, pesticide and textile preservative. EWG asks the agency not to approve this chemical’s use in consumer products until its maker produces all the data EPA typically requires for regulation of antimicrobials and until an EPA evaluation of these data determines that the product is safe for people and the environment.
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The Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF), a California trade association, wants you to have less information about pesticide residues on the fruits and vegetables you buy. That’s not too surprising; since the Alliance represents more than 50 large produce growers and marketers and the suppliers who sell them pesticides and fertilizer.
Read MoreRecent government-sponsored tests at more than a dozen California farms found that organic strawberries were tastier and more nutritious than conventionally grown berries. On top of that, the organic berries had longer shelf life and left the soil in better condition.
Read MoreWith its new blog, Mission Organic Made Easy, the Boulder, Colo.-based Organic Center (TOC) delivers on its promise to communicate all the good reasons to eat food devoid of harmful agrichemicals and to use natural products untainted by toxic chemicals.
Read MoreOver 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.
Read MoreWell, as we do each year, EWG released (on June 19) the latest Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce and as we suspected, eaters around the country are still concerned about high levels of toxic pesticide residue on their fruits and veggies.
Read MoreMethyl iodide: it's listed as a human carcinogen, is considered a neurotoxin and has been linked to late-term miscarriages. Now the state of California is poised to let farmers spray it on the state's strawberry fields - fields that provide over 85% of the US crop.
Read MoreThe smell of lawn chemicals is as dependable a harbinger of spring as robins and lilacs. Not in big parts of Canada, where many municipalities and provinces have opted to abolish the cosmetic use of pesticides on the grounds that the links between pesticide exposure and childhood cancer are too troubling to ignore. So, how come we're still using them?
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