When corporations regulate themselves
This month, Corteva announced it would stop making chlorpyrifos, a brain-harming pesticide. Though this is generally welcome news — to me, this win feels complicated. Why?
Feb 20, 2020
Ahna Kruzic
Food, money & politics
As is now crystal clear, a healthy democracy demands much more than simply showing up at the polls. But as we move into this fraught election year, let’s not forget just how important voting can be. It matters.
Feb 20, 2020
Kristin Schafer
In farmer vs. Bayer, farmer prevails
A jury ruled over the weekend that the agrichemical corporations Bayer and BASF should pay $250 million in punitive damages and $15 million in compensatory damages to farmer Bill Bader.
Feb 20, 2020
Pesticide Actio...
Celebrating democracy, protecting our keiki
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.
Feb 5, 2020
Kristin Schafer
If chlorpyrifos is out, what's in?
This week marks the end of chlorpyrifos sales in California. After the exhausting saga of pesticide industry influence and ignored science that resulted in EPA reversing the planned national ban of the brain-harming chemical in 2017, this concrete step forward for California is momentous.
Feb 5, 2020
Pesticide Actio...
Dicamba’s day in court
Each year since Monsanto’s dicamba-resistant Xtend seeds hit the market, farmers and rural communities have braced for record levels of damaging pesticide drift. And each year, it’s happened.
Feb 5, 2020
Pesticide Actio...
New study: Exposure to common pesticide increases risk of death
New research from University of Iowa has some sobering findings on the impacts of exposure to pyrethroids. The study found that people with the highest exposure to the widely used pesticides were three times more likely to die from cardiovascular disease — and 56% more likely to die from any cause within the study's follow-up period — than those with low or no exposure.
Jan 21, 2020
Pesticide Actio...
Pesticide drift protections under attack
Farmworkers are already some of the least protected workers in the country. And EPA is proposing to weaken an existing rule protecting farmworkers and their communities from pesticide spray drift — the application exclusion zone, or AEZ — a provision in the Worker Protection Standard.
Jan 16, 2020
Pesticide Actio...
94% of new pesticide products approved by EPA
In 2017 and 2018 the U.S. EPA approved more than 100 pesticide products containing ingredients widely considered to be the most dangerous still in use, including some that have been banned in multiple countries or targeted for phaseout in the U.S.
Jan 10, 2020
Pesticide Actio...
Looking back, looking forward
Reflecting back on 2019, I’m feeling inspired, appreciative — and energized.
I’m inspired by the momentum that’s building to make the changes our food system needs. California and New York took the brain-harming pesticide chlorpyrifos off the market, building on last year’s successful legislative ban in Hawai’i.
Dec 18, 2019
Kristin Schafer