What was the cranberry scare of 1959?
On November 9, 1959, Arthur S. Flemming, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare announced that some cranberries grown in Oregon and Washington State had been found to have been contaminated with aminotriazole, a weed killer that had been found to cause cancer in rats. When questioned, he said that if a housewife is unable to determine the origin of fresh or canned cranberries, “to be on the safe side, she doesn’t buy.” Cranberries were pulled from grocery shelves and sales dropped precipitously. Coming shortly before Thanksgiving, this caused a crisis in the industry. After testing it was found that very few shipments of cranberries were contaminated. It was also doubtful that aminotriazole, in the amounts likely to be ingested by a human being eating cranberries, presented a real health risk. Both Flemming and Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson made a point of announcing that they would have cranberries with their Thanksgiving dinners. By Christmas, large quantities of cra
