Farmers often face financial, regulatory and reputational damage when per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are found in their land, crops, water or food, even when the contamination came from somewhere else, according to a new paper from the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST).
The report, "PFAS in Agriculture: Science, Uncertainty, and Risk Communication", was scheduled for release on Friday, 16 October 2026. It says farmers and rural communities "find themselves at the center of a crisis largely not of their making" and concludes that they are "partners in risk reduction, not convenient downstream targets for contamination they did not cause."
PFAS, known as "forever chemicals", can reach farms through biosolids, compost, irrigation water and industrial pollution. The paper says a major problem for policy is that thousands of chemically different substances are treated as one category of risk: the Environmental Protection Agency's PFAS structure list holds 21,028 substances, while the strongest health evidence concerns well-studied compounds such as PFOA and PFOS, particularly at high exposure.
Risk depends on the specific chemical, the level, duration and route of exposure, the report says, and finding trace amounts in soil or food does not by itself establish significant harm.
The paper reviews federal and state rules, including EPA's 2025 draft sewage sludge risk assessment, its 2026 draft biosolids guidance and a 2026 National Academies report prepared for the US Department of Agriculture, and looks at litigation affecting producers.
CAST recommends controlling contamination at its source, strategically testing the agricultural inputs most likely to carry PFAS, judging compounds individually, keeping detailed records, taking part in state regulatory discussions and talking early with affected stakeholders.
Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Source: Farms.com
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