Stonyfield Organic, one of the brands often credited with introducing Americans to organic foods, is celebrating its 35th anniversary with a three-year, $500,000 initiative to eliminate the use of pesticides in parks and fields of 35 communities across the country. "A lot of the epidemic health problems that kids are facing ー ADHD, asthma, and all kinds of immune issues ー are related to the pesticide exposures, not just in what we eat but what we put on our bodies," said the Stonyfield Organic founder Gary Hirshberg. In an interview with Cheddar on Tuesday, Hirshberg said the latest research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York was "shocking", noting that children are exposed to a "cocktail" of pesticides on a daily basis. The good news, Hirshberg said, is that the more we know about the problems, the more we can learn about the solutions. Stonyfield Organic decided to take action after conducting its own study, which showed 67% of parents in the United States were more likely to buy an organic product because of fear of pesticides. But nearly the same number, 69%, were uninformed when it came to what kind of pesticides were being used in the fields and parks where their children play. For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/stonyfield-organic-celebrates-35-years).
