The Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen shoppers guides to avoiding pesticide residue used to be a huge splash in the mainstream media world.

But it has lost its ability to shock and scare the past several years. The guides were released earlier in April, and Teresa Thorne, Executive Director of the Alliance for Food and Farming, said online and print media coverage was about the same as last year, which was the second lowest since AFF has tracked, behind 2020, which was the lowest.

“It is a notable accomplishment that there was no broadcast news coverage in 2022,” Thorne said.

USA Today’s coverage may be the worst. It starts by stating, “What are the filthiest fruits and vegetables at the grocery store? Strawberries, spinach and kale, according to a new report.” Then what follows is what’s in the EWG’s news release.

But it does quote AFF’s Thorne, who says, “Environmental Working Group’s goal to help families access fruits and vegetables with less pesticide exposure was achieved long ago.”

According to Thorne, the story says, 99.8% of the fruits and vegetables tested by the USDA under the Pesticide Data Program are well below the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety levels. A third have no detectable residues at all.

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