{"id":30567,"date":"2022-02-04T00:01:25","date_gmt":"2022-02-04T04:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=30567"},"modified":"2022-02-05T14:28:05","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T18:28:05","slug":"usda-pesticide-food-residue-survey-raises-alarm-while-pesticide-industry-and-epa-misleads-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2022\/02\/usda-pesticide-food-residue-survey-raises-alarm-while-pesticide-industry-and-epa-misleads-public\/","title":{"rendered":"USDA Food Pesticide Residue Survey Raises Alarm, while Pesticide Industry and EPA Mislead Public"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, February 4, 2022)\u00a0In January, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued its 30th Pesticide Data Program (PDP) Annual Summary<\/a> report (which evaluates each year the presence of pesticide residues on produce) and misleads the public on the safety of food and agricultural practices. This 2020 report concludes that more than 99% of the produce samples tested showed residues below established U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) benchmark levels. At first blush, this sounds very reassuring, but Beyond Pesticides maintains that there is (always) more to the \u201csafety\u201d story, not least of which are serious deficiencies in EPA\u2019s establishment of those \u201ctolerances.\u201d Those flaws include a lack of risk assessment for vulnerable sub-populations, such as farmworkers, people with compromised health, children, and perhaps, cultural\/ethnic and regional sub-groups of the general population, and a failure to fully assess serious health outcomes such as disruption of the endocrine system (which contributes to numerous serious diseases). For everyone, Beyond Pesticides recommends choosing organic produce<\/a> whenever possible \u2014 the vast majority of which does not contain synthetic pesticide residues.<\/p>\r\n

The PDP report asserts that<\/a> \u201cthe data . . . illustrate that residues found in agricultural products sampled are at levels that do not pose risk to consumers\u2019 health and are safe according to EPA and FDA.\u201d Blue Book Services\/Produce<\/a> reporting uses the cheery headline (borrowed from the Alliance for Food and Farming), \u201cUSDA PDP report results help ensure consumer confidence in produce.\u201d The agribusiness media and lobbying outfit CropLife America, which represents manufacturers of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals (according to SourceWatch<\/a>) is touting the report<\/a> with the reassuring headline, \u201cUSDA Pesticide Data Program Report Confirms Food Safety.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Annually, USDA (through AMS, its Agricultural Marketing Service) and EPA identify produce items to be evaluated (note that not every item is assessed every year). As Blue Book describes,<\/a> \u201cAMS partners with cooperating state agencies to collect and analyze pesticide residue levels on the selected food commodities. . . . EPA relies on PDP data to conduct dietary risk assessments and to ensure that any pesticide residues in foods remain at or below levels that EPA has set.\u201d The report notes<\/a> that, \u201cPDP is a voluntary program and is not designed for enforcement of tolerances. However, PDP informs [USDA] and EPA of presumptive tolerance violations if detected residues exceed the EPA tolerance or if residues are detected that have no EPA tolerance established.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The 2020 PDP analysis<\/a> evaluated 9,600 samples of fresh and processed vegetables and fruits, including \u201capple juice, bananas, blueberries (fresh and frozen), broccoli, cantaloupe, carrots, cauliflower, collard greens, eggplant, green beans, kiwi fruit, orange juice, radishes, summer squash, sweet bell peppers, tangerines, tomato paste and winter squash.\u201d The sources of those produce items were 59.5% domestic (U.S.), 34.9% imported, 4.9% of \u201cmixed national origin,\u201d and 0.7% of unknown origin.<\/p>\r\n

The complete PDP database for 2020 (and for previous years) is available at http:\/\/www.ams.usda.gov\/pdp<\/a>. The current analyses yielded these top-level results:<\/p>\r\n