This year has been marked by encouraging and long-overdue progress toward eradicating the brain-harming pesticide chlorpyrifos. Following on the heels of Hawaii's ban of the chemical last year, California will phase out chlorpyrifos starting early next year. And as 2019 comes to a close, we can add two more huge victories to the list.
As a mom and a children’s health advocate, I have a deep personal connection to PAN’s work. We all know how important it is to create a world that’s healthy and safe for our kids, and when it comes to food and farming, PAN is getting it done. That’s why I’ve been a proud member of the Board of Directors for the past seven years, and now serve as PAN’s Board Chair.
In mid-November, the Trump administration announced plans to weaken environmental safeguards for atrazine, a pesticide linked to a number of serious health effects in humans — including birth defects and cancer.
Last month, the government of Thailand announced plans to ban the pesticides paraquat, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos by December 1. The news was not taken well by U.S. officials, who have been pressing hard to convince Thailand not to move forward with the planned bans.
We need a system where the landless get control of the land, and agrarian reform becomes an integral part of the change we’re working towards. We need a system where agroecology is widespread, and not industry-backed agroecology but a people-to-people kind of movement building.
Last week, California got great news from the state’s Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) — use of the brain-harming pesticide chlorpyrifos will be forbidden in California after December 31, 2020. Chlorpyrifos has been linked to severe and permanent brain damage in young children, including ADHD, IQ loss and autism. It has also been the source of several farmworker poisonings in the state.
October 1 marked the beginning of 2019’s 16 Days of Action on Agroecology, a global event spearheaded by our partners at PAN Asia and the Pacific (PANAP). This year’s global campaign will focus on youth’s role in agroecology, with the theme, “Youth March On for Agroecology and Food Sovereignty!”
More than two million farmworkers perform some of the most demanding manual labor in this country, cultivating and harvesting the crops that feed us all. Yet these workers are some of the least protected from on-the-job harms. They’re even excluded from the federal standards for minimum wage and overtime pay that are guaranteed to other workers.
As PAN celebrates our 35th anniversary, Senior Scientist Marcia Ishii-Eiteman recently had a conversation with one of PAN’s founding members — and current board member — David Chatfield to talk about PAN’s work throughout the years.
The chlorpyrifos saga continues. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has made the disappointing decision that the agency would continue to allow use of the brain-harming pesticide on food crops. The announcement just meets the deadline ordered in April by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for EPA to make a final decision on a petition to ban chlorpyrifos use on food crops.
