Big Ag Doesn’t Want You To Care About Pesticides

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from Civil Eats:




Big Ag Doesn’t Want You To Care About Pesticides
May 18th, 2011

By Tom Laskawy


The produce lobby is livid that consumers might be concerned about pesticides. They are taking their fury out on the USDA for its annual report on pesticide use (via The Washington Post):

In a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, 18 produce trade associations complained that the data have “been subject to misinterpretation by activists, which publicize their distorted findings through national media outlets in a way that is misleading for consumers and can be highly detrimental to the growers of these commodities.”

This report happens also to be the basis for the Environmental Working Group’s popular “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen” lists of fruit and vegetables with the most and least pesticide residues. The produce lobbyists are pretty steamed about those, too:

“There are some organizations with agendas that do want to scare people away from fresh produce,” said Kathy Means, a vice president at the Produce Marketing Association, a major industry group. “We don’t want anyone eating unsafe foods, of course. But for those products that are grown legally and the science says is safe, we don’t want people turning away.”

Never mind that many consumers want this information. As with labels for genetically modified food, the industry’s position is that ignorance leads to bliss (or at least profits!). The industry maintains that even the Dirty Dozen show pesticide residues beneath EPA limits, and to them, the letter of the law is what matters. Of course, if you believe that pesticides are more dangerous than government scientists are willing to admit then these limits are insufficient. Then there’s the whole concept of synergistic effects–combinations of several pesticides in small amounts can deliver a greater-than-the-sum-of-the-parts toxic punch. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://civileats.com/2011/05/18/big-ag-doesn%E2%80%99t-want-you-to-care-about-pesticides/