“Forever chemicals” known as PFAS — cancer-causing pollutants already found in Long Island groundwater — have been detected in vegetables purchased from farm stands across the North and South forks, according to anew study by Stony Brook University.
The study tested 23 samples of carrots, lettuce and beets purchased from unidentified farm stands in August 2025 and found varying levels of PFAS in all of them.
Researchers and environmental advocates stressed that the contamination is not caused by farming practices but reflects how widespread PFAS have become in the environment.
“This is not about farmers,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. “This particular chemical is insidious; it has become ubiquitous in our environment, and it is not as a result of practices being conducted by farmers.”
Tom Wickham — owner of Wickham’s Fruit Farm in Cutchogue, which traces its roots back to the late 1600s — said the chemicals are not the result of farming itself but may still be present in the broader environment.
“Inevitably, farming is part of the environment and, inevitably, there’ll be some of those compounds found even on farmland or on farm products,” Mr. Wickham said.
“There have been a number of scares of chemicals on produce and on farms used many, many years ago … and it really changed agriculture out here, but we came out of it actually stronger and better than we went into it,” he said.
PFAS have already been detected in North Fork groundwater.
TheSuffolk Times reported last yearthat more than half of private wells tested in a section of Mattituck contained elevated levels of PFAS, with some samples measuring as high as 607 parts per trillion. New York State’s safe limit is 10 parts per trillion.
Bill Zalakar, executive director of the Long Island Farm Bureau, said it is still unclear where the contamination detected in the study originated.
Source: The Suffolk Times
