Safe Fruits and Veggies

Alliance of growers with a mission to combat negative media about pesticide use

The Alliance for Food and Farming has re-launched its website with tools for consumers to learn the truth about pesticide use in farming. The alliance, a grower-funded non-profit group headquartered in Watsonville, Calif., seeks to promote the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables and ease concerns about pesticide use in farming through science-based data.

“Consumer research indicates that about 60 percent of consumers express a high level of concern about pesticide residues on their food, most of which is based on misleading information they see in the media and on the Internet,” said Marilyn Dolan, executive director of the Alliance for Food and Farming. “People are making purchasing decisions based on this information, so it is important for the produce industry to correct misinformation in the media whenever we can.”

The Safe Fruits and Veggies initiative from the Alliance for Food and Farming launched the program in response to the negative perception of pesticides in fresh produce perpetuated by some media. In April, a “trifecta” of studies that linked prenatal exposure to pesticides to low IQ in children, but those studies were based on bad science, said Bryan Silbermann, president and CEO of the Produce Marketing Association and member of the alliance’s board. The mainstream media presented an unbalanced view of the studies, so the produce industry must continue to tell its side – and science is on the side of the produce industry, he said.
The new website from the alliance, www.safefruitsandveggies.com, is a voice for farmers, said Ed Beckman, CEO of the California Tomato Growers Association and alliance board member.

“The website is a resource designed to increase the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, both conventional and organic,” Beckman said.

There are three components to the campaign and associated website. The first is a residue calculator, which allows site visitors to see the dose response level of various fruits and vegetables. For example, a male visitor to the site could select “peaches” to find that he could eat 318 servings of peaches in a day with no effect “even if the peaches have the highest pesticide residue recorded for peaches by USDA,” the site says. The calculator can give the dose response level for an adult male, female, teen or child.

“The pesticide issue is important because of the response it generates from parents,” Beckman said.

In addition to the calculator, visitors to the Safe Fruits and Veggies site will find nutritional data and information on the science behind the residue levels. The site also includes a new alert system to inform the industry about breaking news regarding pesticide coverage. The recent case of misinformation during the Dr. Oz show showed the need for a quick response system to quickly notify farmers about an issue so they could begin to combat the message in an organized and effective manner.

“The Alliance regularly responds to erroneous media reports on a number of food safety topics,” said Teresa Thorne, spokesperson for the alliance. “We are finding that one response to a media report does not generate enough attention anymore. Social media has enhanced the dialog on the topic of pesticide residues, but it is usually a very one-sided debate. What we need is a number of farmers and others in the produce industry to present an alternative view if we are insert more balance into the discussion.”

The alliance will be adding content to the site, including a regularly updated blog, information on the effects of washing product and a Frequently Asked Questions section with answers from experts, Thorne said.

Beyond combating the messages through its website, the alliance is actively engaged in the mainstream media. The group presented its message to the Nutrition News Forecast conference, which is made up of 50 spokespersons for the American Dietetic Association, and they were receptive, Dolan said. The alliance also used that trip to also visit with a reporter from the Chicago Tribune and writers at Jet Magazine, she said. Over the next year, Dolan said the alliance would be working on consumer research to find the real impact of media messages about pesticides on consumption and the effect on demographic groups, as well as publishing a new report on the longterm pesticide use trends in California.

The Alliance for Food and Farming is funded solely from farmers and industry associations. The group doesn’t accept money from pesticide manufacturers or their employees so that consumers can be confident that the message and science is sound and not influenced by donors.

-Scott Christie, Managing Editor