BEYOND PESTICIDES

Join us in ONE WEEK for the National Forum—Register TODAY! BEYOND PESTICIDES’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency, begins one week from TODAY on October 30 from 2 - 4 PM (EDT) and then continues on November 14 at 1 PM (EST). ➡️ Forum website: https://ow.ly/1sEU50TR8hv ➡️ Registration: https://ow.ly/4Gxh50TR8hl The Forum provides an opportunity to discuss with world-renowned scientists, from Germany and the United States, both 1️⃣ the hazards that define the urgency of threats associated petrochemical toxicants, with a focus on chemicals that disrupt the endocrine system (including pesticides) and lead to life-threatening diseases, and 2️⃣ the strategy for adopting a path forward that tackles the problem holistically, rather than one chemical at a time. *** 🆕 We are pleased to announce that a roundtable discussion has been added to the first session—Transitioning to Universal Adoption of Organic Land Management, 3 - 4 PM Eastern (EDT)! The conversation will continue after a keynote by Felix zu Löwenstein, PhD, with a roundtable among organic farmers, marketing experts, policy advocates, and the audience, as we explore strategies to scale up organic land management to become universally adopted in the next decade. The roundtable discussants bring a wealth of experience in building the organic movement to confront the existential health, biodiversity, and climate crises of our time—Alan Lewis, Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage; Linley Dixon, Real Organic Project; and BEYOND PESTICIDES board member Colehour Bondera, organic coffee and tree fruit farmer, with executive director Jay Feldman moderating. #2024 #organic #health #biodiversity #climate #roundtable #register Your registration will provide access to all Forum sessions! 💌 Please share the email invitation linked here and help spread the word! https://ow.ly/QUHw50TR8hk

Daily News: Lawsuit Settlement Tackles EPA’s Dramatic Failure to Regulate Endocrine Disruptors, Despite Fed Mandate A legal victory in federal court is the latest in a series of attempts to force the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to fulfill the mandate from Congress in 1996 to test all pesticides for their endocrine-disrupting effects and regulate them accordingly. #endocrinedisruption #pesticides #epa The case in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California was brought by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and a collection of agricultural workers’ organizations, farmers’ groups, and pesticide activists. It details EPA’s behavior for over 25 years: a combination of stubborn inaction and a succession of failed promises to do better. After the release of a damning U.S. EPA Office of Inspector General (OIG) report on the agency's lack of progress in protecting the public from potential endocrine disruption impacts of pesticides, CFS wrote: “The 2021 [OIG] report included the shocking revelation that some EPA staff were instructed to function as if the screening program had been eliminated from EPA’s budget, despite a $7.5 million allocation that same year—raising the prospect of EPA’s intentional violation of its statutory duty.” EPA’s behavior is largely inexplicable to the uninitiated; however, it is shaped by the shadowy influence of the pesticide industry, which is like an invisible planet whose existence must be deduced by the behavior of visible objects. In the CFS litigation, CropLife International intervened as a defendant. It is always worth pushing back on egregious environmental failures and it is encouraging to see the CFS settlement set out very worthy goals in writing. But, EPA’s history does not bode well for real change. That will likely require agency restructuring and stronger pressure from Congress. *** BEYOND PESTICIDES' National Forum Series launches TOMORROW at 2 PM EDT! ➡️ Register for all sessions: https://ow.ly/U7Q050TVvOA PLUS, for the second session on November 14 at 1 PM EST, hear from a world-renowned researcher on endocrine disruptors and their connection to petrochemical pesticide exposure: Tracey Woodruff, PhD, director of the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment. ➡️ https://ow.ly/6a5H50TVvPr Daily News Blog Post: https://ow.ly/4Caq50TVvPq

Daily News: Legislation Proposes Holistic Protection of Children from Contaminated School Lunches, Advances Organic As scientific articles and regulatory reviews by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) focus on individual pesticides or families of pesticides and specific health outcomes associated with exposure, legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), S. 5084, the Safe School Meals Act (SSMA), proposes a holistic response to the protection of children by banning pesticides in school lunches. #SafeSchoolMeals #organic #kidshealth #takeaction According to Senator Booker, “School meals should be a child’s safest source of nourishment, not another source of toxic exposure.” While focused on the elimination of certain individual pesticides and other chemicals of known concern, the bill unilaterally allows children to be served food from certified organic farms. There are serious long-term health implications for children exposed to the toxic soup of pesticide and chemical residues found in conventionally grown food. Although not specifically required, the only way for a school to meet the objectives outlined in the bill—without bearing a large expense for testing—is to buy organic food. The transition to organic food in school cafeterias is not a new policy concern. In a 2004 article published in Pesticides and You: School Lunches Go Organic, nationwide examples cited demonstrate a pathway forward for broader adoption of organic mandates. https://ow.ly/5Y2w50TUzgx ↩️ S. 5084 also establishes a pathway forward for acknowledging organic food production as a public good and service by expanding funding for the Organic Certification Cost-Share Program to fully compensate farmers for certification costs, a long-term policy goal for organic advocates nationwide. ↪️ Tell your U.S. Representative and Senators to cosponsor S. 5084, which increases the funding available for schools to purchase safe school meals and expands funding for the Organic Certification Cost-Share Program to compensate organic farmers. https://ow.ly/fKWH50TUzgq *** Starts WEDNESDAY @ 2 PM EDT—Don’t miss it! #Register BEYOND PESTICIDES' 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future, begins on October 30 at 2-4 pm (EDT) and then continues on November 14 at 1pm (EST). ➡️ Register here: https://ow.ly/cfK550TUzgv Daily News Blog Post: https://ow.ly/hLX350TUzgp

Take Action: Our Kids Deserve Organic School Lunches! According to U.S. Senator Cory Booker Booker (D-NJ), in introducing S. 5084, Safe School Meals Act (SSMA) in September, “School meals should be a child's safest source of nourishment, not another source of toxic exposure.” #TakeAction #SafeSchoolMeals #organic #childrenshealth Although S. 5084 does not require organic school meals, the only way for a school to meet these objectives without a large expense for testing is to buy organic food. Unfortunately, as pointed out by Kate Mendenhall, executive director of Organic Farmers Association, “Most organic and small farms have not traditionally had access to school food purchasing programs.” S. 5084 will provide a strong incentive for schools to buy organic food for school lunches and thus, according to Mendenhall, will “open new markets for organic foods and help make organic certification affordable for small farmers.” 📣 Tell your U.S. Representative and Senators to cosponsor S. 5084, which increases the funding available for schools to purchase safe school meals and expands funding for the Organic Certification Cost-Share Program to compensate organic farmers! https://ow.ly/ev9g50TTMC0

Daily News: Study Shows Climate Change Exacerbates Synergistic Effects of Synthetic Pyrethroid on Biodiversity To better understand synergistic interactions between multiple stressors, researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) analyze exposure to the pyrethroid insecticide esfenvalerate with two environmental factors: elevated temperature and food limitation. Their results indicate that the greatest synergistic effects are when Daphnia manga (D. magna)—known as daphnids or water flies—are subjected to the insecticide esfenvalerate under conditions experienced with climate change, including lower food availability and increased temperature. Stronger interactions are also allegedly observed with food stress. ➡️ D. magna are small planktonic crustaceans that represent an essential part of the food web in lakes and ponds. Impacts on populations of daphnids can lead to effects throughout multiple trophic levels that impact overall biodiversity. ➡️ Esfenvalerate is a suspected endocrine disruptor and has documented effects of neurotoxicity, irritation, and kidney/liver damage, as well as reported toxicity to fish/aquatic organisms and bees: https://ow.ly/qRqs50TTy8K The entire food web, including both aquatic and terrestrial organisms, relies on balance. In finding that these stressors have a greater cumulative impact, without even factoring in chemical exposure, places a huge threat over the stability of aquatic and terrestrial food webs. Adding in the harmful effects of pesticides, which further exacerbate under these environmental conditions, puts the entire ecosystem at risk. Protecting biodiversity through the elimination of harmful chemicals is the path forward. By adopting organic land management practices, the effects of these existential crises can be mitigated. ↪️ On the necessity, viability, productivity, and profitability of organic land management, attend BEYOND PESTICIDES' 41st National Forum: Imperatives for a Sustainable Future! First session on Oct 30 @ 2 PM EDT! https://ow.ly/31y450TTysq Daily News Blog Post: https://ow.ly/nSu650TTy8J

Daily News: Legislation Seeks to Reduce Pesticides in School Lunches, Advances Some Organic Policy In September, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) introduced S. 5084, the Safe School Meals Act (SSMA), which would ban glyphosate, paraquat, and organophosphate pesticide residues in school meals. While applauding Senator Booker’s initiative to restrict exposure to some of the most hazardous toxicants, especially the most vulnerable subpopulation of children, the legislation can still go further with a holistic solution by providing school children with organic food. #SafeSchoolMeals #organic #organicfood #schoollunch 📣 Please see this Action urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service to require organic school lunches in public schools to combat the obesity and nutrition crises facing children. https://ow.ly/Gps050TSIKb S. 5084 establishes a pathway forward for acknowledging organic food production as a public good and service by expanding funding for the Organic Certification Cost-Share Program to fully compensate farmers for certification costs, a long-term policy goal for organic advocates across the nation. However, the legislation’s creation of a category of “clean suppliers” will compete with certified organic farmers and wholesalers—who receive just a fraction of the support from the federal government relative to chemical-intensive growers and would more likely divert federal funds spent by school districts that would otherwise source organic food. Given increased public interest and demand for organic, and concerns over toxic pesticide exposure, advocates call for organic certified food to be the baseline criterion for eligibility under the National School Lunch Program—where this bill falls short, given the urgent need to eliminate toxic petrochemical pesticide production, manufacturing, sales, and use. *** ❇️ Join us for a discussion on the organic solution at BEYOND PESTICIDES’ 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future, launching next week on October 30 at 2-4pm (EDT) and then continues on November 14 at 1pm (EST). ➡️ Register: https://ow.ly/50Al50TSIKa Daily News Blog Post: https://ow.ly/eSZm50TSIKh

Daily News—Commentary: Expected Trump Blueprint, Project 2025, To Subvert Environmental Law as Crises Mount The stark contrast of two political parties emerged around this summer’s reporting of the Project 2025 blueprint—created by extreme right-wing conservatives—that proposes the gutting of environmental and public health policy and implementation. [The environmental sections, in particular, constitute a very clear authoritarian agenda laying out the intention to dismantle environmental policy in the United States entirely.] In a most-likely insincere rhetorical ploy, the document claims to want to preserve the federal agencies most involved with environmental health, agriculture and conservation. But this is disingenuous. The intended method is to impose something like the process of fossilization: when an organism fossilizes, its biological tissues are replaced by minerals in the exact configuration of the original, so the structure looks the same, but the function is destroyed. This is what Project 2025 aims to do: not to “drown [the government] in the bathtub” and totally dismantle the agencies, but to keep their shells visible while it hands our entire environment over to industry and corrupt politicians. This would be a tragedy—just when we are attempting to correct our previous mistakes in time to save ourselves. #Project2025 #environmentalpolicy #pesticides #tragedy 🔎 Please see today's Daily News post to delve further into BEYOND PESTICIDES' analysis of the document! Daily News Blog Post: https://ow.ly/ram350TRJ6z

Daily News: Flooding Transports Pesticides from Streams to Soil and Plants, Threatens Terrestrial Food Webs A recent study by researchers from iES Landau, Institute for Environmental Sciences—Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU)—analyzes pesticide contamination in riparian soil and plants as a result of flooding from streams in Germany. The authors hypothesize, and then prove, that frequently flooded sites have higher levels of pesticides present due to the pesticides in surface waters contaminating the soil—results indicating that the plant vegetation in the contaminated soil takes up the pesticides, which bioaccumulate and lead to higher contamination that can further cascade throughout the ecosystem and affect terrestrial food webs. According to the authors, flooding events, and their impact on pesticide contamination within soil and plants, are rarely investigated. This study, “measur[ing] 98 pesticides and metabolites in plants and root-zone soils sampled at five streams situated in an area in Southwest Germany characterized by intensive agricultural land use,” highlights the differences in contamination between frequently flooded and rarely flooded areas and the greater impacts on the environment and resident organisms. The runoff of pesticides from agricultural land into surface waters is well documented and continues to be a concern not only in Germany, but across the globe. The only solution to preventing harmful contamination is the elimination of the source pesticides. Chemical-intensive agriculture and land management rely on petrochemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers—meanwhile, a safer alternative via organic exists. *** 🆕 UPDATE—A new roundtable discussion has been added to session 1 of the Forum! Join us on October 30, 2024, for Transitioning to Universal Adoption of Organic Land Management, following a keynote and Q&A from Felix zu Löwenstein, PhD @ 2 PM EDT! https://ow.ly/6tYn50TQOVq ➡️ Sign up for our mailing list to stay engaged and informed via the Action of the Week and Weekly News Updates here: https://ow.ly/Bm6p50TQOVr Daily News Blog Post: https://ow.ly/lUBr50TQOVS

Daily News: Delay in Farm Bill Passage Undermines Advocates Call for Universal Adoption of Stronger Organic Standards To solve the existential crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and human disease, BEYOND PESTICIDES is urging that organic agriculture grows—over the next decade becoming universally adopted for all agriculture. However, core organic programs including the Organic Certification Cost Share Program (#OCCSP) will disappear in 2025 unless Congress passes a five-year Farm Bill with funding or includes sufficient funding in a stopgap bill this fall. The result if this does not happen? Thousands of organic farmers will experience a huge net increase in their annual certification costs and a disincentive for others to make the transition to #organic. #takeaction ↪️ Tell Congress to ensure that organic programs, and their funding, do not lapse this fall. https://ow.ly/pa9u50TPTUt *** 🆕 Please see today's Daily News post to read statements to the National Organic Standards Board on October 15, 2024, from Jay Feldman, executive director, and Terry Shistar, PhD, board member. Thank you to all who submitted comments through our Keeping Organic Strong program! ✨ On the necessity, viability, productivity, and profitability of organic land management, register to attend the 41st National Forum: Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Launches October 30, 2024, at 2 PM EDT! https://ow.ly/LJOM50TPTUu Daily News Blog Post: https://ow.ly/nTkx50TPTUs

Take Action—Essential Organic Programs Will Lapse Without Farm Bill Extension! To solve the existential crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and human disease, it is critical that organic agriculture grow—eventually becoming the standard for agriculture. However, with the expiration of the Farm Bill on September 30, 2023, and subsequent one-year extension, core organic programs including the Organic Certification Cost Share Program (OCCSP) will expire without Congressional action. This leaves thousands of organic farmers with a huge net increase in their annual certification costs—and presents a disincentive for others to make the transition to organic. #FarmBill #Organic #OCCSP #Congress #TakeAction #2024 >> Tell Congress to ensure that organic programs, and their funding, do not lapse this fall. https://ow.ly/Zai250TOUM2