20
Apr
Earth Day, a Day of Education and Action, Offers Opportunities for Advocacy
(Beyond Pesticides, April 20, 2026) Earth Day, this week on Wednesday, April 22, is a day of education and action. Earth Day embodies the power of people in their communities engaging to advance changes in policies and practices that meet the environmental and public health challenges of the day. This year, 2026, may be a turning point in which public outrage about the failure of the current political leadership in Congress and in the Trump administration to address the existential health, biodiversity, and climate crises is deemed politically unacceptable. Animating public concern are elected officials who call the climate crisis a hoax and dismiss the health and environmental threat associated with the weed killer glyphosate (Roundup)—as representative of the deregulation of pesticides associated with cancer and other deadly diseases.
The words of the chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee of Health and the Environment, Representative Paul Rogers (D-FL), express in the importance of grassroots action that elevated Earth Day. In a piece in the EPA Journal, Rep. Rogers wrote the following:
“Historians of the environmental movement are likely to peg Earth Day 1970 as a key turning point in the American public’s consciousness about environmental problems. I believe that Congress’ enactment of the 1970 amendments to the Clean Air Act a few months later was an equally significant landmark. . . The juxtaposition of Earth Day and the 1970 amendments was no accident. As a representative body, Congress was responding to . . . public concern about the environmental pollution that was symbolized by the Earth Day demonstrations.”
The first Earth Day marked the beginning of a worldwide movement to protect the Earth from threats such as oil spills, raw sewage discharged into waterways, toxic chemical dumps, rampant pesticide use, the degradation of important habitats, and wildlife loss—a movement that led to passage of crucial environmental legislation, which is now at risk. While we try to ensure that the gains of the past years are not lost, we can act locally to improve our local environments.
In an action posted for Earth Day, Beyond Pesticides asks: “Does your community have a pesticide-free park managed with organic practices? Do you wish it did? The time to take action to protect those parks and create new ones is now.“
The action goes on to identify local actions and policies:
In partnership with major retailers like Natural Grocers and Stonyfield Organic, the Beyond Pesticides’ Parks for a Sustainable Future program provides in-depth training to assist community land managers in transitioning two public green spaces to organic landscape management, while aiming to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to eventually transition all public areas in a locality to these safer practices. See a map of cities where Beyond Pesticides has assisted local leaders in converting parks and recreational areas to convert exclusively to organic practices and to eliminate the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.
Become a Parks Advocate. Beyond Pesticides will develop materials for your community. Here is a new factsheet on pesticide hazards and alternatives that you can use! Here is an example of a brochure from our work in New York City.
Opportunities for Action:
- If your community is one of a growing number across the country that has taken action to protect its citizens and environment by adopting organic policies and practices in its public spaces, please take this opportunity to thank your community leaders. However, be aware that the pesticide industry is seeking to take those policies away from you.
Message: Thank you so much for implementing pesticide-free, organic policies and practices in our parks and public places! I love to spend time in our parks, knowing that I will not be exposed to toxic chemicals. It is great to know that toxic chemicals will not run off from our public spaces into streams and other water. It is wonderful to know that flowers in our parks can provide nectar to pollinators who face so many threats these days. In honor of Earth Day, thank you on behalf of our local community.
- If your community has not yet taken action to protect its citizens and environment by adopting organic policies and practices in its public spaces, tell them how much you want them to do so.
Message: When I learned about how many communities protect their citizens and local environment by transitioning to organic landcare in parks and other public places (https://bp-dc.org/tools-for-change), I became jealous. I asked why we can’t do the same in our own community. Pesticides used in parks, playing fields, and other public places threaten our health—especially that of our children, who are closer to the ground and have greater exposure. Pesticides and chemical fertilizers run off, finding their way to streams. They also threaten pollinators, who are at risk from multiple threats. Communities no longer need to figure out how to do this alone. Beyond Pesticides’ Parks for a Sustainable Future (https://bp-dc.org/sustainable-parks-land-care-training) program aims to bridge the gaps resulting from staffing constraints and tight budgets, allowing communities to pilot the transition to organic land care on two public sites. I urge you to email [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) or call Beyond Pesticides at 202-543-5450 to get started.
Further Earth Day actions:
- Create your own pesticide-free space in your backyard. Advertise Your Commitment with a Beyond Pesticides “Pesticide Free Zone” Sign. Please share with us pictures of your organic yard or local park. Tell us why your pesticide-free parks are important to you.
- Switch from a conventional to organic diet and drastically reduce the levels of pesticide in your body, with one week on organic food showing a 70% reduction in glyphosate in the body, according to one study.
- Get ready to grow your spring garden the organic way by Springing Into Action.
- Join us in celebrating, propagating, and educating about a misunderstood and beneficial plant: clover.
The targets for this Action are U.S. mayors, as available in the system. If your mayor is not listed, please send their office an email! One tool is the USA.gov “Find and contact elected officials” page, which also lists other options for finding local elected officials in your community.
The action encourages timely advocacy with members of Congress as the Farm Bill moves to a vote of the House and Senate:
There are numerous provisions—a package of provisions—in the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee Farm Bill, voted out on March 5, that seriously undermine protections of health and the environment from pesticides, according to public health and environmental advocates. In response, Beyond Pesticides and allies are calling on U.S. Representatives and Senators to reject the Farm Bill as passed out of the House Agriculture Committee and, instead, pass a one-year extension of current law to protect health and the environment.
The package of amendments covers critical areas of protection that have been established over decades of Congressional action. While groups have called for major reforms, Beyond Pesticides says, “Existing pesticide law forms the foundation on which improvements should be made, not backsliding to give the chemical industry free rein.” (See Advocates Call on Congress To Reject House Agriculture Committee Farm Bill and Extend Current Law.)
For more information, please stay tuned for the Daily News post on April 20, 2026, in celebration of Earth Day!
All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.
