Grant for group aiming to change views on pesticides
By Susanne Rust, California Watch
The state’s food and agriculture department announced the winners of a $17.2 million federal grant designed to promote specialty crops, including vegetables, fruits and nuts, in the state.
Among the 63 winners were Sunsweet Growers Inc., which received $450,000 to develop a high-fiber breakfast prune bread, and scientists at UC Davis who received more than $80,000 to keep light brown apple moths from having sex.
But there was one grant winner that received the attention and ire of the Environmental Working Group, an environmental advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
That group, the Alliance for Food and Farming, received $180,000 to “correct the public’s misconceptions about pesticide residues.”