Pesticide Lobby Launches Three-Year Campaign Against Organics

A non-profit called the "Alliance for Food and Farming" (AFF) seems like it would be a valuable resource for promoting sustainable agriculture.  The group touts that its mission is to "provide a voice for farmers to communicate their commitment to food safety and care for the land." Sounds pretty good, right? Happy farmers, healthy foods, environmentally friendly farming practices — all that good, greenie stuff. But once you take a closer look it appears that AFF isn't green — it's just greenwashed.

As Planet Green reported, AFF recently attacked the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) shoppers guide to pesticides, a valuable tool that informs consumers about fruits' and veggies' pesticide levels. The guide aims to help cash-strapped consumers learn which types of produce they should only buy organic, and which conventionally grown items contain low chemical loads. AFF claims that EWG's shopping guide is actually causing Americans to eat fewer fruits and vegetables. Off course there's no data to support that cockamamie claim, but AFF is putting it out there anyway.

As if that weren't bad enough, AFF is taking its anti-organics message a step further, launching a three-year campaign to dissuade customers from purchasing organics and produce that contains low levels of pesticides. I guess AFF must have missed those dozens of studies linking pesticide exposure to health problems like cancers, hyperactivity, endocrine disorders, reproductive problems, and Parkinson's disease, among other maladies.

If it wasn't clear from the organization's rage against organics, AFF is one of those dubious "non-profits" that exists solely to subtly and misleadingly promote industry goals. According to EWG, the "farmers" that make up AFF are actually more than 50 industrial farms with pesticide and fertilizer interests. AFF doesn't actually say this on its Web site, but it's whack views on sustainable agriculture make its membership pretty clear.

Here's one especially outlandish nugget from AFF's Web site: "These days, farmers are increasingly using fewer pesticides and those that they do use are safer and more environmentally friendly." AFF also notes that California is the strictest state when it comes to pesticide use. First off, there really aren't any chemical pesticides one could consider "safe" or "environmentally friendly." And secondly, California recently approved use of methyl iodide, a chemical in pesticides that is so toxic it's actually used to grow cancer cells in lab settings. If California, a "strict" state, would approve methyl iodide, I don't even want to think about what's happening on other states' farms.

But perhaps the most egregious section of AFF's Web site is its "Pesticide Residue on Foods" section, where the organization essentially tries to debunk all the scientific studies linking pesticide exposure with human health risks.  Using a green-sounding non-profit to downplay pesticides health risks and make a few bucks? That's low even by industrial farms' dubious standards.

Despite AFF's outlandish campaign, EWG's shoppers guide to pesticides remains a valuable tool for consumers. To access EWG's 2010 guide, click here.

Photo credit: jetsandzeppelins via Flickr