Tax Dollars Funding Attack on Organic Foods

If you're hip to organic eating, you're probably familiar with the Shopper's Guide to Pesticides, the pocket-sized pamphlet detailing the pesticide residue on a given fruit or vegetable.

The handy little guide is composed of two lists: the DIRTY DOZEN, which are the fruits and veggies with the most pesticide residue, and the CLEAN 15, the ones that have the lowest degree of pesticides.

If you haven't seen it, here it is:

Personally, I've found it to be very helpful and keep a slightly battered copy in my wallet...

There is one group, however, that's calling the guide — get this — a public health risk!

The Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF) is a group that represents more than 50 large produce growers, marketers and pesticide suppliers. The organization has launched an attack on the guide, claiming that it is convincing consumers to eat less fruits and vegetables — conventional or otherwise.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say anyone with the mental aptitude to choose a red, ripe apple over the mountains of processed foods in the grocery store isn't going to let one little information card scare them away from the fruit and into the cookie aisle.

That's absurd.

And the claim itself is flat out untrue... According to the USDA's Economic Research Service, conventional produce sales have been essentially flat for the last twenty years.

What the AFF neglects to mention is that while demand for conventional variety isn't growing, the demand for organic fruits and vegetables is.

Which brings us to the real issue at hand: organic farmers are cutting in on Big Agro's business.

But despite the absurdity of the situation, the USDA has just handed the group a $180,000 grant in order to propagate their wild claims.

The grant was bestowed upon them under the USDA's Specialty Crops Block Grant program, which was set up in 2004 to "improve efficiency, productivity, and profitability in farming of vegetables, fruits, nuts and flowers."

I'm guessing the emphasis in this instance is profitability.

“This grant is a slap in the face of California’s rapidly-advancing organic agriculture sector,” said EWG President and Founder Ken Cook.

“While conventional produce has seen demand stagnate, organics are enjoying dynamic growth. The state should think twice about using U.S. taxpayers’ money to attempt to give chemical-dependent industrial farming a competitive edge over organics.”

The ironic thing (at least for me) is that I've actually bought more conventional produce after I read the list...

I'm all about saving a few bucks on my avocados and asparagus, so long as I have the peace of mind that they aren't coated in pesticides.

The EWG has started a petition to investigate the grant approval. If you don't think that tax dollars should go towards funding a smear campaign against organic growers, click here to sign the petition.

And you can print out your own copy of the Shopper's Guide to Pesticides here.

Be Well,

Jimmy

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