Concerned about pesticide levels in food? Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list ignores organic pesticides while misrepresenting conventional trace chemical dangers

Credit: Michael Coghlan/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Credit: Michael Coghlan/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The Environmental Working Group wants to insure allied journalists like Sheila Kaplan that their new “dirty dozen” list is almost ready to be copied and pasted into articles promoting the organic industry.

They just need actual scientists to compile everything for them. That’s right, EWG employees do no real work at all, they are instead beholden to government scientists they intend to smear and insist are secretly controlled by the companies that compete with the companies who give Environmental Working Group up to $10 million per year.

They then use that corporate money to help insure that no toxic pesticides that have paid to have an Organic Certified label on them are included.

ewg conspiracy theory

You read that right, there is never any toxic “residue” on organic food not because organic food uses no toxic pesticides(they do), nor that the levels are low(they are much higher) but only because organic food lobbyists and trade group heads who control the National Organic Standards Board spend their days making sure that USDA does no testing of organic food. Want to watch an organic industry trade group talking head stammer? Tell them you want them to join you in making all chemicals used in growing their food available to the public. Even copper sulfate and other toxic products farmers spray on produce the day they ship them to market.

ob wan copper sulfate

The new hit list of competitors to Environmental Working Group clients can’t come soon enough. The farmers who have paid 80 certifying groups controlled by the organic industry, groups who make their money exclusively from fees paid by the clients they sell the stickers to, want to rest assured knowing that for another year Whole Foods marketing materials can suggest their products use no pesticides at all.

science caffeine mug back
Copper sulfate is even more toxic than caffeine, and far worse than pesticides EWG notes are on conventional food, like glyphosate, which are less toxic than vitamins. The science community gets this cup free with a $100 donation. Organic shoppers only get an intellectual placebo.

I, for one, can’t wait for their lawyers to approve new claims which will leave out the fact that the pesticides sold by their clients need 600 percent more chemicals per calorie to get the same yield. Which is why organic food costs so much more.

They won’t mention that. They don’t want science, ethics, or the truth to get in the way of a fundraising campaign. It is for Gaia, after all.

Hank Campbell founded Science 2.0 in 2006, and writes for USA Today, Wall Street Journal, CNN, and more. His first book, Science Left Behind, was the #1 bestseller on Amazon for environmental policy books. Follow Hank on Twitter @HankCampbell

A version of this article was originally posted at Science 2.0 and has been reposted here with permission. Science 2.0 can be found on Twitter @science2_0

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