AFF: It’s time to move on from Dirty Dozen

This update was distributed by the Alliance for Food and Farming March 27, 2025:

This year, we have enjoyed a March without the hype and inaccuracies of the so-called “Dirty Dozen” list.

The annual release of this list has a legacy of negatively impacting consumers through misleading statements about produce safety, insulting farmers by labeling the fruits and vegetables they work hard to grow as “dirty” and denigrating and undermining the work of regulators and health officials.

After 30 years, have its authors, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), finally recognized that this list is harmful to consumers and farmers and decided to abandon it? Have they realized this annual release goes against their stated mission to help consumers make “informed choices?”

Have their constituents and others pushed back on EWG’s hypocritical statements promoting misinformation about the safety of healthy and nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables while they simultaneously espouse the importance of better diets for Americans, including eating more produce?

Or maybe EWG has realized that releasing an unscientific, gimmicky list, like the “Dirty Dozen,” cheapens their work and brand overall. How can one believe EWG’s statements in other areas of environmental policy when they are known for a list that peer reviewed research has shown has no scientific credibility? And they readily admit is not based upon the fundamental tenets of toxicology or risk analysis.

Further, peer reviewed research found that EWG’s messaging results in low-income consumers stating they will be less likely to purchase any produce – organic or conventional. This certainly runs counter to their “informed choices” mission.

With all that is happening in the world of food and agriculture today, has EWG finally determined their time and considerable resources could be better spent by joining initiatives that advance healthy eating and increase consumption of fruits and vegetables?

Maybe EWG will join the efforts of other groups to improve diets through food assistance programs, produce prescription initiatives and educational outreach about the benefits of eating more fruits and vegetables each day.

Let’s hope EWG has come to their senses and abandoned its 30-year-old tactic. We all have enough to worry about without a multi-million-dollar organization advancing more misinformation about food into this already very confusing world.

Please EWG, if you truly want to help consumers make “informed choices,” you will support them when they purchase the produce they enjoy and is affordable and accessible instead of attempting to limit them by pushing singular and much more expensive options with pseudo-science and unfounded safety claims.

It’s time to discontinue this release for all the reasons cited here plus the fact that interest and attention on the list has significantly declined in both mainstream and social media. EWG, it’s time for all of us to move on.

Visit safefruitsandveggies.com and @safeproduce to learn more about the safety of all produce.

For more information, please contact:
Teresa Thorne: tthorne@foodandfarming.info