The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a popular nonprofit activist organization with a $12 million budget, heavily supported by the organic industry. A majority of toxicologists believe that the EWG overstates the health risks of chemicals.

Each year, the EWG publishes a “Dirty Dozen” list, warning consumers about consuming certain fruits and vegetables because of pesticide residue. However, their testing is done only on conventionally grown produce and doesn’t test USDA Certified Organic produce (which allows an approved list of natural pesticides, but not synthetic ones). They also don’t communicate the context of the residues, measured in parts per million (a part per million can be visualized as a single grain of sugar among 273 sugar cubes). Every chemical has a predetermined safe level of application. The pesticide residues found by the EWG are nowhere near a hazardous tolerance level according to the U.S. standards (No Observable Adverse Effect Level, or NOAEL, is the scale in which the highest tolerable level of a pesticide where no adverse effect is identified).