| Dear Katy, This is absolutely terrifying: Kid-friendly foods like breakfast cereal and applesauce made and sold by Kroger, the nation's largest grocery chain, contain cancer-causing pesticide residue that is harmful to honeybees and linked to brain damage in children. A new report released by our allies at Friends of the Earth found many common grocery staples, including pinto beans, apples, cheerios and spinach at top grocery chains, including Kroger, contain glyphosate, organophosphate and neonicotinoid pesticides – all chemicals that are extremely harmful to human health, pollinator populations and our environment.1 Parents and consumers should never have to worry about the safety of the food they buy and feed to their families. We must call on Kroger to immediately phase out foods containing these toxic chemicals and commit to selling more organic foods. Tell Kroger: Stop selling food that contains brain-damaging, bee-killing pesticides. Click here to sign the petition. Pesticide residue on foods, even in small quantities, can have damaging effects on humans, especially babies and children whose brains are still developing.2 Organophosphates, one class of pesticides found in food sold at Kroger, are extremely toxic and linked to neurological disorders, long-term damage to children's brains and cancer. Rachel Carson, the author of Silent Spring, once called them "among the most poisonous chemicals in the world," and they're in the same chemical family as sarin nerve gas.3,4 Glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's toxic Roundup weed killer, has long been considered a possible carcinogen, and the EPA acknowledged that long-term exposure to high levels of glyphosate can cause kidney and reproductive damage.5 But it's not just human health either. Neonicotinoids are linked to the widespread collapse of bee populations, jeopardizing our food supply and domestic agriculture industry. The unchecked use of glyphosate on food crops threatens monarch butterfly populations, which have seen an 80 percent drop since the 1990s.6 We know massive public pressure can force major chains to take action to reduce pesticides. Along with our partners, CREDO members have successfully pressured retailers like Home Depot, Walmart and True Value to phase out bee-killing neonics.7 After CREDO, Friends of the Earth and dozens of our allies ramped up pressure on Costco, the mega-chain committed to phasing out plants and produce treated with neonics and chlorpyrifos (an organophosphate pesticide) and to sell more bee-friendly, organic alternatives. Kroger has no excuse to continue selling food that is harmful to humans and our environment. Please join us to demand it stops selling food grown with toxic pesticides. Click the link below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/kroger-pesticides?t=7&akid=31547%2E12967895%2EPw4V1z Thanks for all you do. Josh Nelson, Co-Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets Add your name: References: - Friends of the Earth, "Toxic Secret," accessed Feb. 8, 2019.
- Pesticide Action Network, "Children," accessed Feb. 8, 2019.
- Rachel Carson, "Silent Spring," 1962.
- Zoë Schlanger, "The US government is ignoring its own scientists' warning that a Dow pesticide causes brain damage in children," Quartz, March 30, 2017.
- Environmental Protection Agency, "Technical Factsheet on: GLYPHOSATE," accessed Feb. 8, 2019.
- Natural Resources Defense Council, "Save Monarch Butterflies," accessed Feb. 8, 2019.
- Friends of the Earth, "Walmart and True Value to Phase Out Bee-Killing Pesticides While Ace Hardware Lags Behind," May 3, 2017.
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