Over the last month, videos have proliferated on social media linking one company, Driscoll’s, to increases in childhood cancer tied to toxic strawberries.
“So your favorite strawberries are giving you cancer,” Luke Hillman, who posts as @lukestoptalking, said in an Instagram video that garnered nearly 3 million views and thousands of comments. “We just allow our food to be sprayed with poison and kill kids cause we can’t get a boycott together.”
This video is one of many that erupted online after the release of a report in May by Mamavation, a consumer advocacy website founded by Leah Segedie to help women make safer purchasing decisions.
Driscoll’s is the world’s largest berry marketer, working with a network of independent growers around the world, from Europe to Mexico, who produce both organic and conventionally grown fruit. The company then sells that fruit to major retailers like Whole Foods and Safeway.
For its report, Mamavation tested two boxes of Driscoll’s strawberries – one organic and one conventional – from a grocery store in Southern California. The samples were screened for over 500 pesticides, including pesticides approved for organic use.
The conventional strawberries tested positive for 12 pesticides, eight of which contained PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” No pesticides were detected in the organic sample. The report states that scientific review was performed by Dr. Craig Downs, a forensic ecotoxicologist and environmental chemist based out of Virginia, and that testing was performed at an EPA-certified laboratory.
Misinformation swirled online alongside long-standing environmental and public health concerns in agricultural communities.
“We are here today to send a message to Driscoll’s, to the Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner and California regulators,” Omar Dieguez told a crowd gathered outside Driscoll’s headquarters in Watsonville on Wednesday, June 17.
Dieguez, an activist from Greenfield, completed a 30-day fast in 2025 to draw attention to pesticide use near schools and residential areas.
“Protect our children, protect our farmworkers, protect our air, water, land. For too long, communities in Pajaro Valley have carried the burden of an agricultural system that relies on toxic pesticides, while corporations continue to profit,” he said. Other speakers described multiple cancer diagnoses in their families, asthma and more.
Pajaro Valley, which straddles Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, is home to a significant share of strawberry production. Monterey County alone produces roughly one-quarter of strawberries consumed nationwide.
Driscoll’s large market share, coupled with high cancer rates in Santa Cruz County, has drawn scrutiny.
Far fewer strawberries are grown in Santa Cruz County – about 2,640 acres – but data from the National Cancer Institute show it ranks third in California for cancer incidence across all ages and races. Monterey County ranks 42nd among 58 counties.
Driscoll’s responded by pointing to an updated review by Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency clarifying childhood cancer rates were not significantly higher than rates seen across California.