News & Analysis

Generic filters
Exact matches only
A farmworker wearing a straw hat bends over in a field to harvest large leafy plants. The sun beats over their back.

National Farmworker Awareness Week: Reflecting on Decades of Advocacy

By supporting good legislation, opposing bad legislation, and building up a network of supporting organizations, it is our hope that we can collectively move the needle on farmworker rights in the right direction. 

Watch and listen as two experienced farmers share stories and practical approaches for small-scale, diversified farms that use the principles of agroecology.  This discussion may provide you with ideas that small farms where you live can adapt and thrive.

After many long days of negotiations, the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) made a historic move for safer food and farming by passing a resolution on highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs) that calls for action to globally phase out the use of the world’s most toxic pesticides by 2035. Tied with this resolution was the passing of a mandate for UNEP to implement this commitment by forming the Global Alliance on HHPs.

A February 6 court decision directed that the use of dicamba be halted for over-the-top (OTT) applications on soybeans and cotton. However, the EPA is allowing the use of existing stock of dicamba under the old use-label guidelines for the 2024 growing season.

Happy-farmer-gathers-apples

Iowa farmers win progress on drift

A farmer-led coalition in Iowa is celebrating a recent announcement from state officials signaling significant improvements in how agencies respond to crop damage from pesticide drift.  Late last month, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) revealed their commitment to speed up drift

Read More »
young-woman-drinking-water

Get this carcinogen out of California water

This summer, the State Water Resources Control Board announced their plans to get a cancer-causing chemical out of California’s water. This is very big news. According to state monitoring data, more than one million Californians may have unknowingly been exposed to the carcinogenic “garbage pesticide”

Read More »
lead image seeds glove 1

Over 700,000 People Tell Government to Block Seed Mergers

September 20, 2016 Washington, D.C.—As the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee meets today to examine consolidation in the agriculture seed and chemical industry, nine groups have submitted petitions signed by 708,000 people urging the Department of Justice and elected officials to block several pending mergers that

Read More »
soap-kid-hands

44 years later, pesticide-free soap

Well that took awhile. In early September, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a list of products they will no longer allow in soaps. On that list was the pesticide triclosan — which was identified as a chemical of concern in 1972.

Read More »
Beekeeping-minnesota

Way to bee, Minnesota!

Last Friday, a small crowd gathered in the agriculture building at the Minnesota State Fair. Beekeepers, entomologists, reporters, farmers and pollinator advocates circled around a small podium, waiting for Commissioner of Agriculture Dave Frederickson and Governor Mark Dayton to speak. The crowd wasn’t disappointed. In

Read More »
PAN iconJoin PAN to receive the latest news and alerts straight to your inbox.