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Wednesday, October 20, 2010
California Agribusiness Interests Targeted EWG
I received the following email from the Environmental Working Group. This is the group where we got the great little hand-out that we have shared with people on the pesticides that are on our fresh fruits and vegetables. Please read with interest and concern. These issues affect all of us, our food supply, and our life:
Dear Friend,
We knew we must be doing something right when California agribusiness interests targeted EWG's Shopper's Guide to Pesticides with an expensive, misleading public relations campaign this summer. The Alliance for Food and Farming (AFF), a public relations group of big, pro-pesticide agricultural producers, made the nonsensical claim that the EWG Guide is influencing people to eat fewer vegetables. We knew most people wouldn't be fooled, but we were shocked when California and federal officials started handing out taxpayer dollars to support the industry's tactics and phony accusations.
That's right. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have handed $180,000 of your money to an industry front group -- a boondoggle intended to counter "claims by activist groups about unsafe levels of pesticides."
If you agree that it's outrageous to use taxpayer dollars to finance attacks on independent food safety watchdog groups like EWG that educate the public about pesticides in food, the USDA needs to hear from you today.
This money comes out of the USDA Specialty Crops Block Grant program -- which is intended to promote sales of fruits and vegetables. Its purpose is being distorted to help chemical-dependent agribusiness fight back against consumers' increasing demand for organic and sustainably produced fruits and vegetables. The grant to the Alliance for Food and Farming was one of 63 grants, totaling $17.3 million, issued to California food and agricultural organizations.
The AFF has a long history of putting pesticide-dependent profits ahead of healthy food choices. When the EPA phased out methyl bromide -- a powerful pesticide that damages Earth's protective ozone layer -- representatives of the AFF called the phase-out "a big concern." They then embraced a replacement, methyl iodide, that EPA officials call "highly toxic."
This is not the type of group that should be getting taxpayer money. Help us convince USDA officials that the Specialty Crops Block Grant program should be used to promote locally grown, organic and sustainably produced fruits and vegetables -- not to bulk up the public relations budget of pesticide-dependent corporate farming interests. The agency should investigate how an industry front group received a $180,000 grant.
Thank you for supporting organic farming.
Sincerely,
Ken Cook
President, Environmental Working Group
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