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Pesticide Action Network

Pesticide Action Network

Minnesota Updates: January 2021

As Minnesota is one of the states in which PAN does on-the-ground campaign work, we send out regular updates on PAN and partners’ work in Minnesota and beyond — from pesticide-related science to opportunities to take action. If you’d like to receive these updates via email, sign up here.

Hello and Happy New Year from the PAN Minnesota Team!

I hope you found time and ways over the holidays to connect with your community, family and friends. During the pandemic, it’s harder to do but it’s so important to feel the love that motivates our activism and reminds us that we are interconnected.

We’re not yet a month into 2021 but it feels like a whirlwind already. In my work with farmers of color and environmental justice groups around the state, we are busy with annual planning and forging new campaigns to win critical battles for our people and the natural resources we cannot live without. We’re looking at newly elected officials as well as many returning ones, and figuring out how to get what we need from systems that weren’t built for us. In the spirit of our fierce resolve, translated into a forewarning statement of things to come, “EXPECT US!” Here’s what we’re looking forward to.

BIPOC, young, and other disadvantaged farmers in Minnesota are looking to policies, like the Agricultural Resilience Act and the California Farmer Equity Act, that support climate justice goals and racial equity, as well as other measures that bring money directly to small farmers, not big ag.

Community-allied scientists are exposing corporate influence in data and policy development. Check out PAN Scientist Emily Marquez’s explanation of the latest EPA data “transparency” policy.

Local beekeepers and pollinator supporters are exposing systemic harms of the pesticide industrial complex — see the recent coverage of ethanol plants and treated seeds — and demanding our state agencies and officials take action through policy.  

Indigenous communities, water protectors and food sovereignty activists are calling on us to demand the Biden-Harris administration stop Line 3 pipeline construction now. You can take action here.  

With the wave of work before us, and the tools we have to fight for change, let us not forget to center the experiences of communities most impacted by oppression and remember that our actions will be the legacy we leave behind.

In solidarity,
Zoe Hollomon, PAN Minnesota Organizer

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Announcements

The Toxic Taters advisory committee, a grassroots environmental justice organization working with rural farmers and Native community members of the White Earth Reservation, is looking for local leaders in North Central MN (Detroit Lakes, Callaway and Park Rapids areas) to organize with on pesticide exposure and contamination. If you or someone you know is interested, contact Zachary Paige at toxictatersdevelopment@gmail.com.

Pesticide Action Network

Pesticide Action Network

Pesticide Action Network is dedicated to advancing alternatives to pesticides worldwide. Follow @pesticideaction

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