Kristin Schafer's blog

One week ago, George Floyd was killed by a police officer on the streets of Minneapolis. Here at PAN, we are outraged by the senseless murder of this unarmed Black man, and also by the brutal killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery — and so many others.

Last night at midnight, a “shelter in place” order went into effect here in Northern California, directing people to stay home except to get groceries or medical care.

Last month, PAN Executive Director Kristin Schafer attended the opening day of the state legislature in Hawai’i. She joined our Protect Our Keiki coalition partners and hundreds of people from across the islands — including busloads of students — who came to meet up with their legislators, take part in workshops, and participate in traditional cultural practices, including pounding poi. 

Each year on December 3, we join our PAN International colleagues across the globe to mark the anniversary of the deadly pesticide plant leak in Bhopal, India. Today is the 35th anniversary of that tragic event.

I spent the first week of April in Montevideo, Uruguay with PAN colleagues from around the world, pressing for global action on hazardous pesticides. This was a meeting of the “Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management” (SAICM), an arena for international coordination on toxic chemicals which PAN has been engaged in since 2006, when the process was initiated. It’s historically been a challenge to make pesticides a global priority, but thanks to growing public awareness about the harms of pesticides and persistent advocacy by our PAN International network, this finally seems to be changing.