Share our online action on social media

Your supermarket might listen if you send them an email about their pesticide use, but they are much more likely to take action if hundreds, or even thousands of their customers contact them calling for the same thing. Help spread the word by sharing the online action on social media and emailing it to friends and family.

Congratulate your supermarket if you find a bug in your fresh produce

Finding the odd bug in fresh fruit and vegetables could be a sign that they have been grown using less pesticides. Complaints from customers about bugs are one of the factors holding supermarkets back from reducing their pesticide use. If you find a bug, why not congratulate and shower them in praise instead? Go to the customer help desk in store or contact their customer service team to tell them how happy you are about it!

Buy the wonkiest vegetables possible

Pesticides are often used to make our fruit and vegetables cosmetically ‘perfect’. By buying the wonkiest produce, you are demonstrating to your supermarket that their customers don’t need items to be ‘perfect’- they are beautiful just the way they are. Most supermarkets now have their own ranges of imperfect produce so make sure to look out for them when you’re shopping.

Buy local, seasonal vegetables from your supermarket

Generally, the shorter a supply chain is, the less pesticides (especially fungicides) will be needed to preserve the produce through the transportation process. Also, while far from perfect, the UK and EU do have higher pesticide standards than many other countries, so food produced closer to home is less likely to have been grown using hazardous pesticides.

Buy organic if you can

Organic isn’t always affordable or even available to everyone. Supermarkets and the UK government could be doing much more to enable all UK citizens to access organic food, regardless of their income. However, if you are lucky enough to be able to afford and access it, then do buy organic. That way, your supermarket will know that the demand for organic is there, and are more likely to increase their range. If you can only afford or access some organic produce and would like to know which items to prioritise, you can download our ‘Dirty Dozen‘ list which shows what produce has been found to contain the most pesticide residues.

Don’t buy pesticide products to use in your garden or home

This is one of the easiest things you can do! If you have weeds in your garden or window boxes, pull them out, don’t spray them with pesticides. If you have aphids, try covering plants with horticultural fleece. If your supermarket sells non-chemical alternatives, such as slug tape, buy them instead of pesticides to show that you want to keep your outdoor space pesticide-free. For more tips and advice, download our Guide to Gardening without Pesticides.

Turning to your home, don’t buy biocidal products that contain Highly Hazardous Pesticides such as ant and cockroach sprays and rat poisons. If you do need to deal with a pest problem, try more natural or non-chemical alternatives first.

Choose wisely when buying tick and flea treatments for your pets

Avoid buying pet tick and flea treatments that contain Highly Hazardous Pesticides which have been banned for use on crops due to the environmental harms they cause. Check the box to see if the medicine contains one of these five highly bee-toxic active substances – fipronil, imidacloprid, permethrin, dinotefuran and nitenpyram. There are plenty of alternatives available which pose less of a risk to the environment.