December
- Senior Scientist Margaret Reeves testifies on listing chlorpyrifos as a reproductive hazard at hearings in Sacramento, California.
- PAN staff work with reporter Kim Larsen on malaria and DDT cover story for the Winter 2008 OnEarth magazine. www.onearth.org/article/bad-blood
- Senior Scientist Susan Kegley and community drift activists filmed by NBC for a story on pesticide hazards associated with growing cotton.
- PAN engages organic farmers, the media and California state officials to promote a least-toxic approach to controlling light brown apple moth.
Reducing Pesticide Use in South East Asia
In September 2007, PAN North America’s Science Department Director
Brian Hill traveled to Cambodia to collaborate on launching the
three-year first phase of a long-term effort at health and
environmental risk reduction in the greater Mekong River region.
The ambitious program aims to build local capacity for “the proper management, and sustainable use, of agricultural and industrial chemicals” in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and China’s Yunnan Province. PAN’s role is focused on supporting community initiatives to reduce pesticide use.
PAN North America will contribute by enhancing its Pesticide Database (www.PesticideInfo.org) to make it more useful to groups in the Mekong region. Partners in the project include PAN Asia/Pacific, CEDAC (the Cambodian Center for Study and Development in Agriculture), PAN China, PAN Germany, KEMI (the Swedish Chemicals Agency), UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Thailand-based Field Alliance, and Chulalongkorn University. The project is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
PAN North America Celebrates 25 Years
O n October 14, 2007, Pesticide Action Network
North America celebrated its 25th anniversary
with a party in San Francisco’s historic Ferry Building.
The event drew more than 200 friends and colleagues
from across the country and around the world. The
crowd ranged from founding members to Central
Valley farming families and their children who traveled
by car hundreds of miles to join us for this rare and
joyous occasion. Maria Elena Martínez-Torres, PAN
North America’s board treasurer from Oaxaca, Mexico,
brought baskets filled with traditional Indigenous corn
seeds—palpable symbols of PAN’s commitment to plant
seeds of hope and justice for the next 25 years.
A highlight of the event was the presentation of the first Annual Health & Justice Award to Monica Moore, founder and co-director of PAN North America from 1984 to 2007. The Monica Fund, established at our Anniversary party, supports PAN North America’s international work. Contributions to the Fund can be made either online or by mail. Look for a slideshow of photos from this event on our website, www.panna.org.
January
- Scientists Brian Hill, Susan Kegley and other activists press the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to implement restrictions on use of fumigants.
- PAN and partners in California, Florida and Washington State press regulatory agencies to prevent registration of methyl iodide fumigant.
- PAN members back a successful Assembly bill to protect California farmers from the hazards of genetically modified crops.
- Staff scientists work on successful litigation to reduce fumigant use in California.
- PAN joins lawsuit (NRDC v. EPA) challenging a federal rule that allows chemical companies to test toxic pesticides on low-income human volunteers.
- PAN International joins other networks to issue a Global Common Statement on the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management.
February
- Action Alert gathers 13,300 signers petitioning U.S. EPA to follow the European Union’s example by banning endosulfan.
- Campaigns Director Kristin Schafer’s letter regarding Morton Grove’s misleading lindane shampoo advertising is published in USA Today.
- PAN North America joins in support of Colombian flowerworkers protesting weak labor standards under the new Florverde label.
- Executive Director Kathryn Gilje and Staff Scientist Karl Tupper work with Minnesota partners Centro Campesino and White Earth Pesticide Action Network. Gilje joins in workshop on pesticides during the 2008 Indigenous Farming Conference.
March
- PAN joins Beyond Pesticides and Californians for Pesticide Reform to convene North America conference, Reclaiming Our Healthy Future: Political Change to Protect the Next Generation.
- OneWorld.net features PAN as Partner for March.
Ongoing
- The Drift Catcher program continues monitoring airborne pesticides with communities in California, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington.