State of Science :: Pesticides
"Pesticides in Food: Flying Blind"
October 2008
Author(s): Charles Benbrook
For years, the USDA has collected and made publicly available annual surveys of pesticide use on major crops. In 2008, no data was collected, ostensibly because of a budget shortfall in the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service.
PCC Natural Markets asked the Center's Chief Scientist, a long-time user of NASS pesticide use data, what the loss of this public pesticide use data means for anyone wanting to understand trends in pesticide use and risks. "Flying blind" describes the consequences of this curious decision by the Bush administration.
This article was published originally in the "Sound Consumer," a publication of PCC Natural Markets, a consumer-owned grocery retailer in the Seattle area. Thanks to PCC Natural Markets for the invitation to publish the article and permission to share it with readers of "The Scoop."
Pesticides and Food: Flying Blind"
