Editor’s note: This opinion piece by Sonya Lunder, senior analyst for the Environmental Working Group, is part of a three-piece presentation today by Food Safety News. To read views on the same topic from an independent nutritionist and the Alliance for Food and Farming, please refer to the links at the bottom of this …
Triple play: AFF says rest easy, eat your fruits and vegetables
Editor’s note: This opinion contribution by the Alliance for Food and Farming is part of a three-piece presentation today by Food Safety News. To read views on the same topic from the Environmental Working Group and an independent nutritionist, please refer to the links at the bottom of this column.
Today the Environmental Working…
Triple play: ‘Pro-choice nutritionist’ calls out produce guides
Editor’s note: This opinion contribution by Toby Amidor is part of a three-piece presentation today by Food Safety News. To read views on the same topic from the Environmental Working Group and the Alliance for Food and Farming, please refer to the links at the bottom of this column.
As a nutritional professional, I…
Beach Beat: The main event EWG vs. AFF — no holds barred
The “Dirty Dozen” is in the news again and as usual I’m imaging a remake of the 1967 motion picture with a cauliflower playing Ernest Borgnine’s character, a cucumber in place of Donald Sutherland and some kind of smooth-skinned melon in the role played by Telly Savalas.
I imagine production numbers to rival those in…
Pesticide data report starts new debate cycle on fresh produce
It’s the silver anniversary for the USDA’s Pesticide Data Program, which marks 25 years with results from samples collected in 2015. It’s a comforting report because it shows American-grown fruits and vegetables are safe because pesticide levels are kept below levels permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has the most stringent restrictions…
Fear-based safety messages may be hurting poorest consumers
New peer reviewed research published in Nutrition Today shows fear-based messaging tactics used by activist groups and some organic marketers that invoke safety concerns about non-organic produce may be having a negative impact on consumption of fruits and veggies among low-income consumers. 
Researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s (IIT) Center for Nutrition Research surveyed…
The evolution of organic messaging moves away from fear
Editor’s note: This opinion piece was originally posted July 18, 2016, by the Alliance for Food and Farming. At the inaugural Organic Produce Summit in Monterey on July 14, we witnessed a messaging evolution happening among the strongest organic advocates. This messaging moves away from disparaging non-organic products and mirrors the main message of…
Feds say you’ll be fine as long as you rinse those strawberries
Momma probably already told you to wash the strawberries. But did she say why? 
It’s that time year when advice from an environmental group goes up against messages from fruit and vegetable growers who produce, with the help of some pesticides, $60 billion in crops annually. U.S farmers grow more than 350 types of fruit,…
Environmental Working Group Releases First ‘Dirty Dozen’ List for Food Additives
The Environmental Working Group – famous for its list of produce most likely to be contaminated with pesticides – has now released a “Dirty Dozen” guide for food additives. There are more than 10,000 additives in food distributed in the U.S., and EWG is trying to highlight “some of the worst failures of the…
Environmental Working Group Releases 2014 ‘Dirty Dozen’ List
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) released its annual Shopper’s Guide today, including the latest iteration of its “Dirty Dozen” list – a ranking of produce most likely to be contaminated with pesticides. The guide ranks 48 popular fruits and vegetables based on an analysis of 32,000 samples tested by U.S. Department of Agriculture and the…
New "Dirty Dozen" Produce List is EWG's "Oldie"
Editor’s Note: There was a little cross- contamination in the Food Safety News kitchen last night and we mixed up some FDA comments about a meat study with this story about produce. As a result we took down the story for a couple hours. We regret any confusion we may have caused for FDA, the …