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NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

202.667.6982
alex@ewg.org
or leeann@ewg.org

The Shopping List Agribusiness and Pesticide Companies Don't Want You to Know About

Lobby for Chemical Agriculture Mounts Campaign To Discredit EWG Guide To Pesticides In Produce

WASHINGTON

Rachel Carson ignited the debate over pesticide safety a
generation ago. Its next phase will begin this Thursday (July 15).

For the first time, chemical farming interests will take aim at
Environmental Working Group's (EWG) influential "Shopper's Guide To
Pesticides In Produce," a popular consumer tool, introduced more than a
decade ago, that has helped drive expansion of organic produce sales at
the expense conventionally grown, pesticide-contaminated fruits and
vegetables.

The Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF) -- an industry front group
representing more than 50 industrial produce operators, pesticide and
fertilizer interests -- will hold a "Webinar" to launch what its
organizers have described as a three-year campaign to debunk EWG's
Shopper's Guide. The group aims to dissuade consumers from shopping for
fruits and vegetables--organic or conventional--that have less
pesticide contamination.

EWG encourages interested members of the media to join the Alliance
Webinar, scheduled for Thursday, July 15 at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST), to
learn how agribusiness plans to advise consumers to eat produce with
pesticides.

Contact the AFF on how to participate: https://www.foodandfarming.info/contact.asp
(831) 786-1666 or email executive director Marilyn Dolan @ mdolan@foodandfarming.info

We also invite reporters to join an EWG teleconference at 2:30 EST to
hear our views about the issue and learn more about EWG's Shopper's
Guide To Pesticides In Produce.

"We are delighted and grateful to chemical farming interests for this
new effort to heighten consumer awareness about pesticides that
routinely contaminate most conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables,"
said EWG President Ken Cook. "We feel confident that their campaign will
help consumers, and parents especially, understand anew just how easy
it is to enjoy and increase consumption of fresh produce while reducing
exposure to toxic pesticides."

The Environmental Working Group is a community 30 million strong, working to protect our environmental health by changing industry standards.

(202) 667-6982