Fair & Clean, Healthy & Green

Obama hears from PAN and partners

Within days of the presidential election, the Obama transition team invited stakeholders to discuss the administration’s priorities. Since November, Pesticide Action Network has worked through key coalitions to weigh in on four issues: federal pesticide policy, the global food crisis, sustainable agriculture, and fundamental principles of toxic chemicals policy.

Transforming U.S. pesticide policy

PAN’s most detailed recommendations were presented in a January 9 submission to the transition team, a document co-written by PAN and Beyond Pesticides and endorsed by close to 100 organizations and more thousands of individual signers “Because of the widespread and unnecessary use of over five billion pounds of pesticides a year in the U.S., hazardous chemicals invade our lives through the contamination and poisoning of our bodies, air, land, water, food and the built environment”(see www.transformingpesticidepolicy.org). The document, which was also submitted directly to incoming EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on January 28, identifies actions the administration should embrace in the first 100 days to better protect children, farmworkers and communities from exposure to hazardous pesticides.

“Because of the widespread and unnecessary use of over five billion pounds of pesticides a year in the U.S., hazardous chemicals invade our lives through the contamination and poisoning of our bodies, air, land, water, food and the built environment,” wrote Kathryn Gilje and Jay Feldman, Executive Directors of PAN and Beyond Pesticides, in their letter transmitting the document to the Obama team. We urged an agenda for change in America that prioritizes:

• Public and environmental health;
• A green and fair economy;
• Environmental protection;
• Scientific integrity;
• Transparency and accountability.

Our joint recommendations include 26 specific actions on pending decisions and petitions related to pesticides currently before numerous federal agencies, including EPA, the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Justice.

Call to action on the world food crisis

On December 15, the U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis, of which PAN North America is a founding member, sent an open letter to then President-elect Obama. The broad coalition of faith-based, environmental, agricultural, and hunger organizations called for “The fragile economy in the U.S. and around the world has only made hunger more widespread.”essential policy shifts and global leadership from the new administration. “The global food crisis ceded headlines to the financial crisis this fall,” noted Bill Ayres, Executive Director of World Hunger Year. “But the problem has not gone away. In fact, the fragile economy in the U.S. and around the world has only made hunger more widespread.” 


According to USDA, 36.2 million people in the U.S.—12.4 million children—were food insecure in 2007. Globally, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 963 million people are hungry—a situation that is not only morally reprehensible, but also a driver of political unrest and instability. “We are at a critical crossroads in rethinking the structure of our food and farming systems worldwide,” wrote PAN senior scientist Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, one of the authors of the recent UN Agricultural Assessment which was highlighted in the Working Group’s letter to Obama. “We believe the U.S. can and must play a key role in moving us toward a future where sustainable agriculture supports vibrant rural communities, respects the dignity of workers, and delivers safe and healthy food for all,” she added.

As a candidate, Obama pledged to end childhood hunger in the U.S. by 2015, and publicly recognized the deep flaws in the current global food system and the need for reform. The Working Group laid out guidelines for national policies that would help his administration reach these goals:

• Stabilize and guarantee fair prices for farmers and consumers globally;
• Rebalance power in the food system by reducing the influence of corporate agribusiness and increasing community participation in public policy decisions;
• Make agriculture environmentally sustainable;
• Respect, protect and fulfill human rights of farmworkers and other food system workers; and
• Guarantee the right to food.

Support for sustainable agriculture

Senior scientist Margaret Reeves represented PAN at a meeting with Obama transition team staff focused on agricultural issues on December 23rd. The event was facilitated by one of our long-time allies, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and followed on a December 6 letter to President-elect Obama supported by many members of the national Pesticide Working Group, of which PAN is co-chair.

“Industrial farming has produced record levels of commodities,” the letter declared, “but has devastated rural communities, increased our dependence on food imports, polluted our water and air, made unhealthy food cheap and healthy food expensive, put our food supply at risk, and fed our addiction to oil.” The coalition of sustainable agriculture, farmworker and environmental health advocates called for smart and innovative government leadership to build a sustainable agricultural system that “creates good jobs for more farmers and workers, provides all Americans with fresh and healthy food, and supplies raw materials for a green energy and industrial sector.” The groups also called for support for diversity in the farm sector, “sensitive to issues of culture, race and gender,” and equal treatment throughout all farm programs and food systems.

It underscored that over and above funding for sustainable agriculture research and development, we need a fundamentally new food system that is fair in supporting family farms and decent working conditions for farmworkers; clean in protecting us from pesticide exposure and food contaminated by pathogens from industrialized animal feeding operations; healthy because organic systems are nutritionally superior; and green because ecological agriculture helps reverse climate change and preserves our land and ecosystems.

Toxic chemical policy

In concert with more than 70 groups associated with the Louisville Charter for Safer Chemicals, PAN also signed on to a letter to the president —see www.louisvillecharter.org — pressing for leadership in key areas of chemical policy, including:

• Restoration of scientific integrity in chemical regulation;
• Adopting the precautionary principle, ensuring that a product is safe before it goes on the market;
• Advancing environmental justice by eliminating disproportionate burden on communities of color;
• Restoring U.S. leadership on chemicals policy at the international level, including becoming full members of the Stockholm and Rotterdam Conventions;
• Revamping and accelerating the chemical regulatory process; and
• Increasing transparency in decision-making and balancing stakeholder influence.

The promise of real change

As of January 30, we still know little about Obama’s actual agenda for change on many of the key issues PAN addresses. But there are hopeful signs. The administration’s platform on rural issues includes strong language in support of local, organic agriculture and family farmers. And EPA’s new leader, Lisa Jackson, made a public commitment to restore scientific integrity, respect the rule of law, and bring transparency back to the beleaguered agency.

We remain hopeful, yet recognize that renewal and transformation rely upon the engagement of us all. Hard work lies ahead.