If you're planning to buy a pumpkin this year, consider one that's locally grown and organic or pesticide-free.

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If you're planning to buy a pumpkin this year, consider one that's locally grown and organic or pesticide-free.

By supporting organic agriculture, you're promoting the health of farmworkers as well as the health of streams, rivers, and wildlife.

Among the 32 different types of pesticides used on pumpkins, several-including malathion and diazinon-are known neurotoxins or carcinogens.

If every pumpkin patch in the U.S. chose to go organic, more than 400,000 pounds of chemical pesticides could be eliminated per year.

Local Harvest
U.S. Geological Survey