"As evidence of pesticide risks increases, a new report finds that the food industry is ‘actively reversing progress’ on lowering their use in supply chains."
"In 2019, food giant General Mills debuted a three-point strategy to reduce synthetic pesticide use within its supply chains. The plan was to implement regenerative agriculture practices on 1 million acres of farmland by 2030, increase the use of integrated pest management (IPM) on farms, and expand organic acreage.
More than six years later, the webpage that outlined that plan redirects visitors to a page on regenerative agriculture, where the word “pesticide” does not appear.
“They are no longer aligning their regenerative agriculture program with pesticide reduction at all, which is obviously concerning, because what the soil science points to is that regenerative without significant pesticide reduction is not regenerating soil health,” said Cailin Dendas, the senior coordinator of As You Sow’s Environmental Health Program.
Dendas is the author of a new report that found General Mills is not alone: It’s one of several food companies moving away from earlier promises to reduce pesticide e."
