Together with the Center for Farmworker Families/Campaign for Organic & Regenerative Agriculture (CORA), Toxin Free USA is campaigning to stop Driscoll’s conventional berry farms from applying toxic pesticides near schools throughout the United States and beyond. We are calling for a global boycott of Driscoll’s conventional berries until they stop the pesticide applications. Driscoll’s must stop endangering schoolchildren.
The largest berry producer in the world, Driscoll’s is a family-owned business that grows and distributes blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries. The company is headquartered in Watsonville, California. In the U.S., it has conventional and organic production fields throughout California, and in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington.
In California, and potentially in other states, the Driscoll’s family has not been a good neighbor. Just imagine how you would feel if a family that was a prominent member of your community was poisoning your children every time they went to school.
Cancer rates are up. In Watsonville, childhood cancer rates are 38% higher than the California average! The California Pesticide Information Portal (CalPIP) database documents Driscoll’s application of carcinogenic and other toxic synthetic pesticides on farms near schools, exposing children to levels as high as 2.3 times the established safety threshold – that’s 230% of the lifetime cancer risk level set by California’s cancer experts.
Omar Dieguez and Adam Scow of CORA are Watsonville residents and have been petitioning Driscoll’s to stop using toxic pesticides near their schools for years. In 2025, Mr. Dieguez held a month-long hunger strike. Many members of the community have participated in ongoing protests. Yet Driscoll’s has refused to stop putting the community’s schoolchildren at risk. Rather than taking meaningful action, Driscoll’s has continued business as usual, claiming what they are doing is legal.
It may be legal, but it is so horribly wrong and immoral. It’s time for CHANGE.
You can help protect schoolchildren from Driscoll’s toxic pesticides in a few key ways:
- Sign our Change.org petition to Driscoll’s.
- Call Driscoll’s headquarters and ask them to stop toxic pesticide applications at farms near schools: (800) 871-3333
- Download a letter to your local grocery store, requesting that the store pledge not to sell Driscoll’s conventionally grown berries. Print, sign and deliver it to the store manager. Take a copy of the letter to every grocery store you shop at.
- Share this campaign with your family, friends and co-workers to help grow its impact.
- If you are a grocer, become a Grocery Hero by taking the pledge to not sell Driscoll’s conventional berries: Grocery Hero Pledge page.
- If you are a nonprofit or non-grocery business, you can join the coalition and help broaden public awareness: Boycott Driscoll’s Coalition Signup page.
- We will be regularly posting campaign graphics on Facebook, Instagram and X. Share them to help create awareness.
- Purchase a “Driscoll’s: Don’t Berry Our Schoolchildren in Toxic Pesticides” organic cotton t-shirt. All profits will help fund this campaign. GO TO STORE.
- Do you have any other ideas to help us grow the boycott? Email us at [email protected]
