The Wonderful Company is the top sprayer of the herbicide glyphosate in California, according to records analyzed by Mother Jones as part of its searchable database of Top 100 users in the state.
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Company → accord → state
The company used 328,000 pounds in 2023, the latest year pesticide records are available—about 68 percent more than anyone else in the state.
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records → use → state
How California farmers use the weedkiller matters to the rest of the country, too: The state is the largest producer by value of agricultural products in the United States, and produces nearly half of the country’s vegetables and more than three-quarters of its fruits and nuts.
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state → use → fruits
Glyphosate is the key ingredient in professional-grade Roundup weedkiller, and the most widely used herbicide in the world.
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Glyphosate → use → world
In recent years, it has been the focus of intense public debate following more than $12 billion in lawsuit payments to people who say it made them sick.
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them → follow → people
Many labor and environmental groups oppose its use—research has shown it likely harms most endangered species—and so does a key part of President Donald Trump’s base, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) coalition.
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part → oppose → base
(Bayer, which manufactures glyphosate through one of its subsidiary companies, has maintained that the herbicide is safe when used as directed and notes that regulators around the world have approved its use.)
The Wonderful Company is owned by Linda and Stewart Resnick, major contributors to state politics, including to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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Company → manufacture → Newsom
Its brands include Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice, Wonderful Halos mandarins, and Wonderful Pistachios.
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brands → include → juice
The company has long touted its food brands as health products, at one point claiming their pomegranate juice could “treat, prevent, or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction.”
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juice → tout → disease
(In 2015, the FTC told them to stop making those claims.)
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FTC → tell → claims
In a statement, a spokesperson for The Wonderful Company said it “is one of the most environmentally focused agricultural enterprises and prioritizes sustainable business practices across its farming operations.
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it → say → operations
The company, the spokesperson added, “currently uses glyphosate only for weed control in our orchards and does so in full compliance with government approved label instructions.
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spokesperson → add → instructions
It is applied only at ground level to target weeds—never aerially—and shields are used to help ensure the herbicide does not come into contact with trees.”
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herbicide → apply → trees
Wonderful’s new distinction as California’s top sprayer of glyphosate, at least according to the most recently available data, could raise hackles across the political spectrum and with health-conscious and environmentally minded eaters.
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distinction → accord → eaters
Two-thirds of Americans favor banning the use of glyphosate, including 70 percent of Republicans and 69 percent of Democrats, according to a new survey released this month by the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
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thirds → favor → Center
“It has a well-established toxicity to the environment,” George Kimbrell, an environmental attorney, previously told me.
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Kimbrell → have → me
A 2020 report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded glyphosate likely harms 93 percent of endangered species and 96 percent of the critical habitat they rely on.
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they → conclude → habitat
Even when farmers take precautions, the residue often persists in the ecosystem around where it’s used.
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it → take → ecosystem
A survey by state inspectors released this year found glyphosate in 100 percent of the waterways tested in the Central Valley, which is the key agricultural region in California.
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which → release → California
Kimbrell, who is co-executive director at the Center for Food Safety, helped lead a team of nonprofits that successfully petitioned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the EPA’s 2020 recertification of glyphosate as safe to use.
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that → lead → glyphosate
The court ruled that the EPA could not say the herbicide is not likely to cause cancer because most of the studies the agency reviewed had “indicated that human exposure to glyphosate is associated with an at least somewhat increased risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma.”
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exposure → rule → lymphoma
The court added that the agency had also shirked its duty to properly assess the ecological risks of the herbicide.
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agency → add → herbicide
The EPA is now working on a new assessment.
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EPA → work → assessment
Meanwhile, the country continues to rely on the EPA’s nearly 35-year-old assessment that designated the weedkiller as safe to use in 1993—when glyphosate spraying was only a small fraction of what it is today.
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it → continue → 1993
The continued use of glyphosate is “a huge injustice.
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use → continue → glyphosate
It’s an injustice to the farm workers,” said Irene De Barraicua, director of policy at Organización en California de Lideres Campesinas, whose organization joined Kimbrell in the lawsuit.
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organization → ’ → lawsuit
“Our workers are being exposed to these risky chemicals.”
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workers → expose → chemicals
Farmers and food companies continue to rely heavily on the chemical.
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Farmers → continue → chemical
Earlier this year, against the wishes of his MAHA supporters, Trump issued an executive order to boost domestic production of glyphosate and help shield its manufacturer from lawsuits.
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Trump → issue → lawsuits
“Glyphosate is a very useful herbicide,” said Brad Hanson, who runs the Hanson Weed Management Lab at University of California, Davis, where the Resnick’s donated $50 million in 2022 for agricultural research.
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Resnick → say → research
Hanson, who testifies on behalf of glyphosate manufacturers in court cases, said it allows farmers to reduce their water use and overall costs while increasing their yields.
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farmers → testify → yields
“If you have a lot of weedy vegetation that is using up the water and soil nutrients, that is water that isn’t getting to the almond tree, or the pistachio tree, or whatever you’re growing,” Hanson said.
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Hanson → have → whatever
Hanson said it’s common to find trace amounts of glyphosate in some food products, such as almonds.
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it → say → almonds
He said it wasn’t clear if glyphosate was getting into the nuts because they are harvested by shaking them from the tree and collected from atop ground that contained residue of the herbicide, or whether small amounts of the herbicide are absorbed by the tree and circulated into the growing almonds.
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amounts → say → almonds
Either way, he said he wasn’t personally worried about it, even as someone who applies the chemical.
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who → say → chemical
“I’d rather have less glyphosate in my system than more—but I think if you dug into other stuff, you’d see bigger actual risks,” he told me.
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he → have → me
“I mean, is glyphosate my biggest risk factor, or is it more likely that my cheeseburger and IPA habit is a bigger problem?”
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habit → mean → ?
Though the science is mixed, several recent studies have suggested that exposure to glyphosate may pose health risks.
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exposure → mix → risks
One study found it resulted in brain inflammation in mice at doses equivalent to what regulators say is safe.
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regulators → find → doses
Another found it may have increased metabolic and liver problems in California children living close to where it is sprayed.
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it → find → children
…and 8 more, not listed.
