Pesticides

California’s Strawberry Industry Is Hooked On Dangerous Pesticides

November 13, 2014 Bernice Yeung, Kendall Taggart and Andrew Donohue, www.beta.cironline.org Educate! California, Food and Agriculture, Pesticides

Paul Helliker had a job for Dow AgroSciences. As director of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, Helliker had allowed some growers to ignore the restrictions for a pesticide called 1,3-Dichloropropene, which the state believed caused cancer. The loophole was supposed to be temporary. Helliker gave Dow, the company that manufactures 1,3-D, and growers two years to come up with a plan to follow his department’s rules or to create new ones. It took Dow less than a year to hand in its proposal. The company’s plan didn’t close the loophole, however. It greatly expanded it. Dow asked that the director allow growers across the state to use twice as much 1,3-D in a year as the rules permitted. And the company wanted it to happen quickly. Two Dow officials, Bryan Stuart and Bruce Houtman, closed their proposal by saying that “implementation will begin immediately upon receipt of approval” from Helliker.

Revolt Against Pesticides In Oregon

October 27, 2014 Evaggelos Vallianatos, www.truth-out.org Organize! Environment, Oregon, Pesticides

n Oregon, the capture of local government by the timber industry results in the destruction of the natural world and the poisoning of the populace, but a Josephine County ballot initiative would ban tree spraying by corporations and government entities. Several grassroots environmental organizations from Oregon invited me to visit their communities and talk about my recent book, Poison Spring. This is a book about the failure of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remain the EPA, as originally conceived. My 25 years of experience at the EPA taught me that the EPA lost its independence soon after President Richard Nixon brought it into being in December 1970. The country's polluters have been bribing Congress and the White House so that, among other political prizes, they could capture the EPA.

Coalition Sues EPA Over Herbicide Approval

October 25, 2014 Center For Food Safety, www.centerforfoodsafety.org Resist! Chemical Industry, EPA, Food and Agriculture, Pesticides

San Francisco, CA – A coalition of farmers and environmental groups filed a lawsuit to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today on behalf of six Midwest states where a toxic herbicide cocktail called Dow’s Enlist Duo, a blend of glyphosate and 2,4-D, was approved on October 15 for use on genetically engineered (GE) crops. Approved for use on GE corn and soybeans that were engineered to withstand repeated applications of the herbicide, the creation of 2,4-D-resistant crops and EPA’s approval of Enlist Duo is the result of an overuse of glyphosate, an ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup. The misuse resulted in an infestation of glyphosate-resistant super weeds which can now be legally combatted with the more potent 2,4-D.

California’s Plan For Unlimited Pesticide Spraying

October 22, 2014 Earth Justice, www.earthjustice.org Educate! California, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Law, Pesticides

SACRAMENTO — The California Department of Food and Agriculture has published a draft of an environmental plan giving the agency authority to spray toxic pesticides anywhere in California, at any time into the indefinite future. The blanket approval would allow no opportunity for affected communities to stop the spraying. According to the plan, the state’s agency would have the right to approve new pesticides and other expansions of the spray program with no public review, notice or analysis of the health and environmental impacts in specific locations to be sprayed. The plan, described in the Statewide Plant Pest Prevention and Management Programmatic Environmental Impact Report, relies on a list of 79 pesticides and other chemicals, including substances linked to cancer, birth defects, miscarriages, and reproductive system impacts.

Tonight! ‘HoneyBeeLujah’ Campaign Launches In Times Square

April 17, 2014 Blake Zidell, target="_blank" >www.popularresistance.org Organize! Arts, Environment, GMOs, Pesticides

Reverend Billy & The Stop Shopping Choir, who first rose to international attention for their music-based challenge to consumerism, have turned their attention to big corporations’ role in climate disruption. They take up the plight of the Honey Bee in their new campaign, HoneyBeeLujah!, which launches with an hour-long action this Thursday, April 17, in Times Square. The event will begin in front of the U.S. Armed Forces Times Square Recruiting Station at6pm with the Reverend delivering the Choir’s new manifesto. Then the activist-performers, adorned and accompanied by hundreds of Honey Bees handmade by Savitri D. and the Choir, will move throughout what Reverend Billy calls the “Stonehenge of Logos” at New York’s most famous intersection.

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