(Beyond Pesticides, September 9, 2008) The U.S. Senate is proposing to cut $2 million per year from the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI), the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s premier organic research program, and the Bush Administration is threatening to cut a whopping $8 million, according to the Organic Farming Research Foundation. The move [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 29, 2008) After repeated calls from parents, consumer groups and health experts to protect children from toxic chemicals, congressional lawmakers have agreed on statutory language that would prohibit the use of a family of toxic chemicals found in many children’s products, according to the Washington Post. Legislators are proposing to include this [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 11, 2008) According to an internal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) memorandum, a Supreme Court decision is undermining the agency’s ability to enforce the Clean Water Act (CWA). Two House Committee Chairmen have sent a letter to EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson for more information regarding EPA’s enforcement efforts in the wake of [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 1, 2008) In testimony responsive to a request last year by Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on April 29 that EPA’s risk review process is plagued by delays, a lack of transparency, and interference from [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 24, 2008) An investigation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released yesterday finds that 889 of nearly 1,600 staff scientists reported that they experienced political interference in their work over the last five years. The report, Interference at EPA: Science and Policies at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, by the Union of [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 9, 2008) You have an opportunity to ask your U.S. Representative to stand up for the protection of health and the environment by joining with his/her colleagues in the U.S. Congress on a letter to stop a pro-pesticide amendment in the Farm Bill, which is still under consideration in a House-Senate Agriculture [...]

Action: Stop Congress from undermining USDA’s ability through its conservation programs to (i) curtail dangerous pesticides that exceed safety thresholds or have not been fully tested, and (ii) advance the transition to organic production and land management. Issue: USDA should retain its discretionary authority to restrict or prohibit specific classes of pesticides as a condition [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 18, 2008) Congress on Monday opened an investigation into allegations of potential conflicts of interests among scientists appointed to panels that advise the EPA on the toxic effects of chemicals. Members of EPA’s science advisory panel have been linked to powerful chemical manufacturers and interest groups. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich), chair of [...]

Reclaiming Our Healthy Future: Political change to protect the next generation, the 26th National Pesticide Forum, will be held March 14-16 at the University of California, Berkeley. This exciting environmental health conference is just about a month away, sign-up now to pay the pre-registration rate.Speakers, panels and workshops Many scientists, authors, community leaders and activists [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 28, 2008) Reclaiming Our Healthy Future: Political change to protect the next generation, the 26th National Pesticide Forum, will be held March 14-16 at the University of California, Berkeley. Register now to pay the pre-registration rate. Recent speaker additions include Marla Cone, author of Silent Snow and environmental journalist with the Los [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 8, 2008) Reclaiming Our Healthy Future: Political change to protect the next generation, the 26th National Pesticide Forum, will be held March 14-16 at the University of California, Berkeley. Register now to pay the pre-registration rate. James Roberts, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina and co-author [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, December 11, 2007) Arturo Rodriguez (UFW President), Devra Davis, Ph.D. (author and University of Pittsburgh professor of epidemiology) and Tyrone Hayes, Ph.D. (UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology) will be speaking at the 2008 National Pesticide Forum. The conference, Reclaiming Our Healthy Future: Political change to protect the next generation, will be held [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, November 29, 2007) As a follow-up to a Congressional hearing in September 2007, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is planning to develop a unified program referred to as “Partnerships for Environmental Public Health” (PEPH). The intent of the program is to support a variety of research, outreach and educational activities [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, October 26, 2007) The organic and sustainable farming communities gave mixed reviews for the farm bill adopted by the Senate Agriculture Committee on October 25, 2007. Groups applauded new funding for the Conservation Security Program and organic farming, as well as the strong livestock competition title and the ban on packer-ownership of livestock, [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, October 15, 2007) President Bush signed the Pesticide Registration Improvement Renewal Act (PRIA II) into effect last Tuesday, renewing and amending the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA). Environmentalists, government officials and industry representatives hailed the passage of the law, marking a rare consensus among the groups. The Senate passed the bill (S. 1983) [...]

PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS TODAY! Urge them to stand with Senator Harkin in fighting for a farm bill that invests in the future! Time is of the essence. If your Senator is on the Agriculture Committee (see list of Members and their contact information below) call and ask for their legislative aid that works on [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 6, 2007) On July 20, 2007 the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Farm, Nutrition and Energy Act of 2007 (H.R. 2419), commonly known as the Farm Bill, on a vote of 231-191, with 10 Representatives not voting. The vote fell generally along party lines with 19 Republicans (just six from the [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 23, 2007) Organic produce growers, beef producers, and others testified before Congress this week that industrialized farming has hurt rural communities, the American diet, and family farms and asked that the Farm Bill support the fast growing and successful family businesses that are producing organic foods. The disproportionate subsidies going to conventional [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 4, 2007) On March 29, 2007, Representative Hilda Solis (D-CA) testified before the House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands in support of legislation she introduced to honor Cesar Chavez. Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW) gave hope that farm workers and others would finally [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 21, 2007) Farm and environmental groups are calling on Congress to make organic and family farming priorities in the 2007 Farm Bill. The Farm Bill provides hundreds of billions of dollars to the agricultural sector, but groups believe the subsidies, which primarily support large, chemical-intensive agribusiness, are distributed poorly and are wasting [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 12, 2007) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson appeared before the Environmental and Hazardous Materials and Energy and Air Quality Subcommittees of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 8, 2007 to discuss the EPA’s Budget for the first time in his six-year tenure as Administrator. Representative Hilda Solis (D-CA) [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 22, 2007) On February 16, 2007, Representatives Hilda Solice (D-CA), Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Mark Udall (D-CO) and Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and John Kerry (D-MA) introduced the Environmental Justice Act of 2007 to the 110th Congress. The legislation was introduced to protect communities of color and low-income communities from the on-going [...]