Pesticide

Ten Times More Toxic Pesticide Could End Up On Our Food Under Proposal

April 24, 2024 Sharon Lerner, ProPublica. Educate! Environment, EPA, Food and Agriculture, health, Pesticide

When you bite into a piece of celery, there’s a fair chance that it will be coated with a thin film of a toxic pesticide called acephate. The bug killer — also used on tomatoes, cranberries, Brussels sprouts and other fruits and vegetables — belongs to a class of compounds linked to autism, hyperactivity and reduced scores on intelligence tests in children. But rather than banning the pesticide, as the European Union did more than 20 years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed easing restrictions on acephate.

EPA Approves Pesticide, Then Finds It Harms Endangered Species

November 10, 2020 the Center for Biological Diversity. Educate! Biodiversity, Endangered species, EPA, Pesticide

Washington, DC (Nov. 5, 2020) - The Environmental Protection Agency released an assessment today finding that the endocrine-disrupting pesticide atrazine is likely to harm more than 1,000 of the nation’s most endangered plants and animals. The finding is a result of the agency’s first-ever nationwide assessment of an herbicide’s harm to protected species, an analysis that’s required by the Endangered Species Act. The assessment’s release comes just two months after the EPA reapproved the pesticide’s use for another 15 years.

US Bird Numbers Drop By Nearly Three Billion In 48 Years

September 22, 2019 Tim Radford, Climate News Network. Educate! Birds, Environment, Pesticide

LONDON, 22 September, 2019 − America’s birds have taken wing. Ornithologists calculate that in the past 48 years, total US bird numbers, reckoned together with Canada’s, have fallen drastically. There are now 2.9 billion birds fewer haunting North America’s marshes, forests, prairies, deserts and snows than there were in 1970. That is, more than one in four has flown away, perhaps forever. Birds are one of the better observed species. Enthusiastic amateurs and trained professionals have been carefully keeping note of bird numbers and behaviour for a century or more. A flock of avian scientists reports in the journal Science that they looked at numbers for 529 species of bird in the continental US and Canada to find that while around 100 native species had shown a small increase, a total of 419 native migratory species had experienced dramatic losses.

Monsanto Papers Lead To New European Parliament Pesticide Committee

January 19, 2018 Staff, Sustainablepulse.com Resist! European Parliament, Monsanto, Pesticide

The Conference of Presidents, a governing body of the European Parliament, has Thursday endorsed the mandate of a Special Committee to analyse and assess the authorisation procedure for glyphosate and other pesticides, following recent revelations from the Monsanto Papers and the Great Glyphosate Rebellion, in which many EU states have vowed to phase out the use of glyphosate-based herbicides. Following a Greens/EFA and Socialists and Democrats (S&D) initiative, the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament announced that the Special Committee will be composed of 30 members and will meet for nine months. The constituent meeting is expected in March 2018. Co-presidents of the Greens/EFA group Ska Keller and Philippe Lamberts stated: “Thanks to the hard work of campaigners and environmentalists, the issue of glyphosate and other harmful pesticides has been brought to the forefront of the political debate.

Hawaii Groups Plant Coconut Trees, Protest Against Monsanto

May 25, 2015 Cathy Bussewitz, www.utsandiego.com Create! Food and Agriculture, GMOs, Hawaii, Pesticide

Demonstrators spent Saturday planting coconut trees and waving signs in rallies across the Hawaiian Islands as part of an international day of protests against agriculture business Monsanto. The protesters complained about the impacts that companies like Monsanto have on the community when they spray fields with chemical pesticides. They say they want agribusiness companies to stop using Hawaii as a testing ground for pesticides and genetically modified foods. "Get off the island," said Diane Marshall, a Honolulu teacher. "I would like to see them close up shop." In Waikiki, a man wore a gas mask in front of a statue of surfer Duke Kahanamoku to demonstrate the dangers of pesticides. Others in bikinis talked with tourists about why they don't want genetically modified goods to be grown in Hawaii.

Daily movement news and resources