Pesticides

Dow’s Dastardly Deeds

May 1, 2017 Staff, www.organicconsumers.org Educate! Food and Agriculture, Pesticides

By Staff of Organic Consumers Association - With Monsanto looking to be acquired by Germany-based Bayer, is Dow Chemical taking over Monsanto’s role of chief influence-buyer in Washington, D.C.? Dow wasted no time wooing Trump—the poison-peddler ponied up $1 million for the new president’s inauguration festivities. Trump swiftly rewarded Dow by naming CEO Andrew Liveris to head a new White House manufacturing working group. In February, after Trump signed an executive order aimed at rolling back regulations (including those on pesticides and GMOs), he handed the pen to Liveris. Fitting, given that Trump’s new EPA chief, Scott Pruitt, was quick to overturn the Obama administration’s proposed ban on one of Dow’s moneymakers, chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate pesticide. (Pruitt’s move prompted a lawsuit by environmental groups). Now, it seems, just banning organophosphates isn’t enough. A new report by the Associated Press (AP) says lawyers for Dow and two other manufacturers of organophosphates are asking Trump’s administration to throw out the EPA’s own studies on the dangerous effects of chlorpyrifos and other organophosphates, known to lower I.Q.s and cause neurological damage in children.

France Bans Pesticides In Public Green Spaces

January 1, 2017 Staff, www.ap.org Create! France, Pesticides

By Staff for Associated Press. Pesticides will be banned in all public green spaces from Sunday while non-professional gardeners will no longer be able to buy pesticides over the counter. The new measure is part of a larger green program adopted by French lawmakers that also includes a ban on plastic bags for vegetables. The pesticide ban covers public forests, parks and gardens, but local authorities are still allowed to use pesticides in cemeteries. The new law also stipulates that pesticides will be prohibited in private gardens from 2019.

Gov Says Popular Pesticide Doesn’t Cause Cancer. Here’s The Problem

September 22, 2016 Tom Philpott, www.motherjones.com Educate! Pesticides

By Tom Philpott for Mother Jones - Back in 1996, seed and chemical giant Monsanto introduced crops engineered to withstand a weed killer called glyphosate (brand name: Roundup). Soon after, glyphosate emerged as by far the globe's most prolific pesticide, its use spiking nine fold in the United States and nearly fifteenfold globally. All the while, it enjoyed a reputation as a relatively benign agrichemical compared with older, harsher herbicides like 2,4-D and dicamba.

Victory!! Pesticide Contamination Prohibited From Organic Production

June 30, 2016 Staff, www.centerforfoodsafety.org Create! Contamination, Organic, Pesticides

By Staff of Center for Food Safety - SAN FRANCISCO— Synthetic pesticides are once again prohibited in compost used for organic production, thanks to a federal court in the Northern District of California. The court issued a decision in litigation brought by several nonprofits challenging the United States Department of Agriculture’s allowance of pesticide contamination in compost used in organic food production. Center for Food Safety, Center for Environmental Health and Beyond Pesticides filed the case in April 2015, arguing that USDA had unlawfully changed organic regulations to create a new pesticide loophole ...

Bayer And Monsanto: A Marriage Made In Hell

May 28, 2016 Martha Rosenberg and Ronnie Cummins, www.organicconsumers.org Educate! Food and Agriculture, GMOs, Monsanto, Pesticides

By Martha Rosenberg and Ronnie Cummins for Organic Consumers Association - The two multinationals that teamed up during the Vietnam War to poison millions of people with its Agent Orange herbicide—St. Louis, Mo.-based Monsanto and Germany’s Bayer AG—are looking to become one. Bayer has announced a bid to buy Monsanto in a deal that would expand Bayer's GMO and pesticide holdings and add drugs to Monsanto’s global portfolio. Monsanto has rejected the latest bid, but the two are still in talks.

Children Near Farms Pay Steep Price For Food We Eat

May 15, 2016 Elizabeth Grossman, www.civileats.com Educate! Farmworkers, Food and Agriculture, Pesticides

By Elizabeth Grossman for Civil Eats. The report out today from Pesticide Action Network (PAN) found that children in rural and agriculture communities across the United States are effectively exposed to a “double dose” of pesticides. They’re exposed both directly, through pesticide drift, and indirectly, through the residue that makes it home on their family members’ bodies and clothing. At the same time, PAN researchers say many children in rural communities also experience economic and social pressures that can exacerbate the adverse health effects of these chemicals. What’s worse, there is now increasingly solid evidence linking pesticide exposure to an array of childhood cancers—particularly leukemia and brain tumors—which are on the rise, as well as adverse impacts on children’s neurological development. Yet despite mounting evidence that rural children are in very real danger, they are still not being protected, says PAN.

From Farm To Table: Protecting Farmworkers From Pesticides

February 22, 2016 Kari Birdseye, www.earthjustice.org Resist! EPA, Farmworkers, Mortgages, Pesticides

By Kari Birdseye for Earthjustice - At first, the sticky drops raining down were a welcome reprieve from a long, hot day spent uprooting weeds on a Minnesota farm. "I remember thinking, 'This is cool!' As in, 'This will cool me off,'" said Juan Fernando Rodriguez Tellez. As Tellez and his friends continued to pull at the huge weeds tangled within the cornstalks, they paid little attention to the crop duster flying overhead that was supposed to be dousing a neighboring field. Tellez wore long sleeves and pants for protection against the sun, but as he pulled weeds the drizzle leaked inside the glove on his right hand.

Doctors Warn Monsanto Larvicide Is Behind Birth Defects

February 21, 2016 Staff, www.mintpressnews.com Educate! health, Monsanto, Pesticides

By Mint Press News Desk. RIO GRANDE DO SUL, Brazil — Doctors’ groups from Brazil and Argentina warn that it may be a larvicide used to kill mosquitos — not the Zika virus — that’s behind a sudden spike in cases of microcephaly in Brazilian newborns. Most medical authorities, including those from the Brazilian government and the World Health Organization, suspect that Zika is causing a sharp increase in microcephaly, an extremely rare birth defect that causes reduced brain development and lifelong developmental difficulties. The ties between the virus and microcephaly are considered strong but largely circumstantial. Outside of Brazil and French Polynesia, none of the pregnant women infected with the virus have produced microcephalic infants. And while Colombia had identified 2,100 diagnosed cases of Zika in pregnant women as of Feb. 1, there have been no reported cases of microcephaly.

Bee Keepers Sue Over EPA Study On Pesticides

January 11, 2016 Claire Bernish, www.theantimedia.org Resist! Bees, Food and Agriculture, health, Pesticides

By Claire Bernish for Antimedia - United States - A new study by the Environmental Protection Agency has found evidence through a study that backs what activists and environmentalists have asserted for years: one of the most widely used neonicotinoid pesticides can, indeed, cause declines in honeybee populations. But the agency’s findings are too little, too late for many farmers and food safety advocates, who consider the EPA neglectfully responsible for widespread employment of neonicotinoids.

Organic Farmers Score Victory In ‘David And Goliath’ GMO Fight

January 6, 2016 Nadia Prupis, www.commondreams.org Resist! Food and Agriculture, GMOs, Monsanto, Oregon, Pesticides

By Nadia Prupis for Common Dreams - Jackson County, Oregon wins new protections against cultivation of genetically engineered crops. Organic farmers are racking up new victories in the fight against 'franken-food', as a growing number of counties line up to bar genetically engineered (GE) crop cultivation throughout the country. A federal judge in Jackson County, Oregon recently upheld a consent decree that designates the region a "GE-free zone," a ruling which officially protects the decree from appeal, granting new protections to farmers, consumers, and the environment.

‘No-Grow Zone’: Israel Admits Spraying Poisons Inside Gaza Strip

January 5, 2016 Staff, www.sputniknews.com Educate! Food and Agriculture, Gaza, Israel, Palestine, Pesticides

By Staff of Sputnik - The Israeli Army has admitted that they used crop-dusters to kill hundreds of acres of Palestinian crops, claiming that it was to “enable security operations.” Palestinian officials have stated that over 420 acres of land inside the Gaza strip were damaged by the poisons sprayed to kill vegetation. “For years now, the IDF has unilaterally maintained a lethal ‘no-go zone’ on the Palestinian side of the border with Gaza. Now, it seems, it has also implemented a ‘no-grow zone,’” Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man wrote for +972.

EPA Bans Highly Toxic GMO Pesticide

November 29, 2015 Ocean Robbins, www.foodrevolution.org Resist! EPA, Food Safety, GMOs, Herbicides, Pesticides

By Ocean Robbins for the Food Revolution Network. In phenomenal and ground-breaking news, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has just announced that it is revoking the registration of the controversial chemical Enlist Duo. This is a huge set-back for the GMO industry. Enlist Duo is the super-toxic herbicide (a combination of glyphosate and 2,4-D) that is designed to be sprayed on Dow Chemical’s genetically-engineered corn (and soy), widely referred to in the organic industry as Agent Orange Corn. The EPA recognized that the two active ingredients in Enlist Duo could result in greater toxicity to non-target plants, and issued a ruling that may effectively end the threat of Agent Orange Corn. But, at the very same time, Monsanto, Dow, and their special interest friends have unveiled a new, sneaky approach to hide information about GMOs. Recognizing that the “Deny Americans Right to Know (DARK)” act that they pushed through the U.S. Congress is likely dead in the Senate, they're offering a "compromise" piece of legislation. It would require GMO labels on food products, but ONLY if they're hidden in QR codes (which take a smart phone to decipher) on the back of a product.

Hawaii’s Spike In Birth Defects Puts Focus On GM Crops

August 24, 2015 Christopher Pala, www.theguardian.com Educate! Environment, Hawaii, Pesticides, Public Health

By Christopher Pala in The Guardian - In Kauai, chemical companies Dow, BASF, Syngenta and DuPont spray 17 times more pesticide per acre (mostly herbicides, along with insecticides and fungicides) than on ordinary cornfields in the US mainland, according to the most detailed study of the sector, by the Center for Food Safety. That’s because they are precisely testing the strain’s resistance to herbicides that kill other plants. About a fourth of the total are called Restricted Use Pesticidesbecause of their harmfulness. Just in Kauai, 18 tons – mostly atrazine, paraquat (both banned in Europe) and chlorpyrifos – were applied in 2012. The World Health Organization this year announced that glyphosate, sold as Roundup, the most common of the non-restricted herbicides, is “probably carcinogenic in humans”.

Trade Agreement Seeks To Increase Pesticide Use

January 9, 2015 Center for International Environmental Law, www.ciel.org Educate! Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Law, Pesticides

A new analysis exposes how the American and European pesticide industry is using ongoing EU-US trade negotiations to lower human health and environmental standards in order to increase trade in toxic pesticides. A new study by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Lowest Common Denominator: How the EU-US trade deal threatens to lower standards of protection from toxic pesticides, tracks how CropLife America and the European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) propose to use the ongoing Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations to lower levels of protection in the EU relative to those in the US. If adopted, the pesticide industry proposal would increase the amount of pesticide residue on food sold to consumers in Europe; allow the use of carcinogens, endocrine (hormone) disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and others toxic pesticides; and interfere with efforts to protect bees and other pollinators to safeguard food supplies for future generations.

Over Half Of Foods Tested In The U.S. Contain Pesticides

December 23, 2014 Pesticide Action Network, www.panna.org Educate! Food and Agriculture, Law, Pesticides

“A majority of the foods sampled contained some level of pesticide residue. While the levels found were mostly below ‘tolerance’ levels established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for many pesticides health impacts in children can occur at such low levels. For example, testing was done for the neurotoxic insecticide chlorpyrifos in 18 different types of food (mainly fruits and vegetables or products). While only a small number of samples contained the chemical, detections were in 12 of the 18 types of food. The chlorpyrifos residues were nearly all below EPA’s tolerance levels; yet it is worth noting that very small amounts of chlorpyrifos are associated with adverse effects. Epidemiological studies on children exposed to the insecticide have indicated associations with lowered IQ and effects on brain development at low doses.

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