Dear Chief Executive,
 

I am a regular and loyal customer of yours. I am writing to you to express my deep concern about the amount of pesticide residues that might be present in the food I purchase at your stores.

My concern about pesticide residues is as a result of the potential for negative health impacts on my family, particularly my children, and also the effects they can have on the health of farmers, farm workers and rural residents and environmental damage caused by pesticides.

I would like to choose food to minimise my intake of pesticides and want supermarkets to do more to support safer methods of pest management and reduce the amount of produce contaminated by pesticide residues.

I have read about the performance of your company on pesticide issues on the website of the Pesticide Action Network UK (PAN UK). I’m asking you to put more effort into reducing the use of pesticides and reporting your progress to consumers; specifically in the following areas:  

• Report to the public on your pesticide residue testing results
• Take actions to reduce levels of pesticide residues in the food you sell
• Phase out the most hazardous pesticides in your supply chain particularly those associated with cancer and   reproductive problems
• Provide technical and financial support to farmers in your supply chain to reduce their use of pesticides and adopt safer, non-chemical alternatives
• Explore ways to reduce the amount of pesticide used to produce cosmetically perfect fruit and vegetables. I would prefer to eat food with minor blemishes and a shorter shelf life if this will reduce the amount of pesticide farmers feel obliged to use to meet your quality standards.

I hope that you will take these issues as seriously as I do and I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Kind regards.

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