WALDEN, Vt. -- Produce industry associations reacted with alarm to the latest shot fired in an anti-pesticide campaign by the consumer advocacy group Food & Water Inc., based here.
Similar versions of the ad ran last summer in The New York Times and other consumer publications, Food & Water said. The latest ad was the group's first to appear in a supermarket trade publication.
The two national produce trade associations said they received calls from concerned members after the ad appeared.
"The activist group Food & Water has a long history of unscientific scare threats, but has stooped to a new low in its recent ad in Supermarket News," said Tom Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, Alexandria, Va.
The Produce Marketing Association, Newark, Del., said it was "dismayed and appalled" by the ad. Bob Carey, president, said, "No one . . . has ever been harmed by eating fresh produce properly treated with crop protection tools."
Michael Colby, executive director of Food & Water, said it will continue to place ads in trade publications. He said the organization will send a direct-mail piece in January to 25,000 food executives, primarily retailers, and is preparing a radio advertisement aimed at consumers, to air in early 1996.