Eating with a Conscience
Choosing organic food to protect health and the environment
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Sweet Corn and Popcorn
Below are the pesticides with established tolerances (residue limits for pesticides used in the U.S. or by countries exporting to the U.S.) for corn. While not all the pesticides on the list are applied to all corn, there is no way to tell which pesticides are applied to any given piece of conventional produce on your store shelf. You may consider talking to the farmers at your local farmers market about the pesticides they use, but eating organic is the only way to know for sure.
California Farmworker Poisonings, 1992–2010: 59 reported (CA acreage: 33,000). These poisoning incidents only represent the tip of the iceberg because it only reflects reported incidents in one state. It is widely recognized that pesticide incidents are underreported and often misdiagnosed.
Pesticide Tolerances —Health and Environmental Effects: The database shows that while corn grown with toxic chemicals show low pesticide residues on the finished commodity, there are 84 pesticides with established tolerance for corn, 38 are acutely toxic creating a hazardous environment for farmworkers, 79 are linked to chronic health problems (such as cancer), 29 contaminate streams or groundwater, and 71 are poisonous to wildlife.
Pollinator Impacts: In addition to habitat loss due to the expansion of agricultural and urban areas, the database shows that there are 37 pesticides used on corn that are considered toxic to honey bees and other insect pollinators. For more information on how to protect pollinators from pesticides, see Beyond Pesticides' BEE Protective webpage.
- This crop is NOT dependent on pollinators.
- This crop is foraged by pollinators.
(A = acute health effects, C = chronic health effects, SW = surface water contaminant, GW = ground water contaminant, W = wildlife poison, B = bee poison, LT = long-range transport)
2,4-D Acetochlor Ametryn Atrazine Azoxystrobin Bentazon Bifenthrin Boscalid Butylate Captan Carbaryl Carboxin Carfentrazone-ethyl Chlorantraniliprole Chlorothalonil Chlorpyrifos Clopyralid Clothianidin Crotoxyphos Cyfluthrin Cypermethrin | Deltamethrin Dicamba Difenoconazole Diflufenzopyr Dimethenamid Dimethomorph Diquat Dibromide Endosulfan Ethoprop (ethoprophos) Fenvalerate Fludioxonil Flufenacet Fluometuron Fluroxypyr Fluthiacet-methyl Glyphosate Imidacloprid Indoxacarb Ipconazole | Lambda-cyhalothrin Linuron Malathion Mancozeb Maneb Mesotrione Metalaxyl Metconazole Methomyl Methoxyfenozide Methyl bromide Methyl parathion Metolachlor Metribuzin Myclobutanil Nicosulfuron Nitrapyrin Paraquat/Paraquat dichloride Pendimethalin Permethrin | Phorate Propargite Propiconazole Pyraclostrobin Pyriproxyfen Sethoxydim Simazine Spinetoram Spinosad Tebuconazole Tefluthrin Tembotrione Terbufos Thiamethoxam Thiodicarb Topramezone Triadimenol Trifloxystrobin |
All tolerance data is based on the Environmental Protection Agency's Tolerances by Commodity, Crop Group, or Crop Subgroup Index (last updated July 2009). For more information, see our Methodology page.