Raging Grannies to McDonald's: Stop Pesticide Drift!

The Raging Grannies went to the Palo Alto McDonald's on El Camino Real today in solidarity with the Toxic Taters Coalition which is based in rural northern Minnesota. The Grannies said that McDonald's can reduce pesticide drift wafting from RD Offutt Company's farms by putting pressure on this major supplier of potatoes for fries and hash browns.

McDonald’s is the largest potato purchaser in the country. Amongst the demands made by the Toxic Taters Campaign is that McDonald’s require that its potato suppliers achieve measurable and significant decrease in use of health harming pesticides.

The fast food company’s 2009 pledge to reduce pesticides goes unfulfilled. Meanwhile in northern Minnesota pesticide drift from Offutt potato farm wafts onto to schools, nearby sheep farms, and onto Native American lands. White Earth tribal members are working with Pesticide Action Network to document pesticide drift in the potato-producing regions of northern Minnesota.