We recently chatted with PAN Asia Pacific’s communications officer Ilang-Ilang Quijano, based in Manila, Philippines, to learn more about her background, current work, and vision for the future of food and farming. Enjoy!
Agriculture is political. I think about it often, and I’m thinking about it especially as I visit family and friends back home in Iowa, one of the many chemical-intensive agriculture “bellies of the beast.”
After a brief attempt in 2020, the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act (PACTPA) was re-introduced by Senator Cory Booker on November 23 of this year, and PAN is among the organizations that support its passage! This bill would overhaul U.S. pesticide regulations, ultimately mandating new rules to protect people and the environment.
The need for local food resources is a topic I find myself writing about frequently. As a farmer who maintains a small-scale, diversified operation, I often share my fear that farms like mine cannot be successful without community support.
In Bet the Farm, author and beginning farmer Beth Hoffman describes the harsh reality of the economics of farming in the United States. The summary? The math on making a living farming often just doesn’t add up.
Not only do pesticides affect our health and the environment, but they also play a part, both directly and indirectly, in climate change: For example, fossil fuels are used in the production and transportation of pesticides; their use supports highly unsustainable food and farming systems; and they affect the soil’s ability to sequester carbon.
I was invited to the celebration and I wanted to participate. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had just announced that “it will stop the use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos on all food to better protect human health…” This is what PAN and many partnering organizations have been working on for years. Getting here has not been easy, and people are understandably ready to give a sigh of relief and enjoy the feeling of a job well done.
A recent study found that the diversification of agricultural systems helped reduce social and ecological impacts, increase resilience to stressors and shocks, and promote social equity and ecological sustainability when compared to more simplified agricultural systems.
A new study analyzing publicly available data tells us that organic farming lowers dietary risks of exposure to pesticides.
Late last month, peasant movements, Indigenous peoples and civil society organizations (CSOs) sent two strong messages to those in charge of the UN Food Systems Summit (UN FSS) at a Pre-Summit event in Rome.
