(Beyond Pesticides, May 7, 2018) Beyond Pesticides and The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) today responded to a federal judge’s ruling against Monsanto Co.’s motion to dismiss the groups’ lawsuit, filed in April, 2017. The lawsuit challenged Monsanto’s safety claim on its Roundup (glyphosate) products as misleading and fraudulent. Monsanto displays a claim on its Roundup product label that states that the chemicals in the product “targets an enzyme bound in plants but not in people or pets,” when, in fact, the chemical adversely affects beneficial bacteria essential to the gut biome and normal body functions.

Jay Feldman, executive director of Beyond Pesticides, the lead plaintiff in the case, said:

“In the face of EPA’s poor regulation of pesticides, misleading pesticide product labeling cannot be left unchecked. The court’s decision to allow our case to move forward, in denying Monsanto’s motion to dismiss, is critical to showing that the company is deceiving the public with a safety claim on its Roundup (glyphosate) label. Its advertising and labeling claim that Roundup ‘targets an enzyme found in plants but not in people or pets’ is false, given the devastating harm that glyphosate has on beneficial bacteria in the gut biome. The disruption of the gut biome is associated with a host of 21st century diseases, including asthma, autism, bacterial vaginosis, cardiovascular disease, cancer, Crohn’s disease, depression, inflammatory bowel disease, leaky gut syndrome, multiple sclerosis, obesity, Type 1 and 2 diabetes, and Parkinson’s.

The science on the hazards of Roundup (glyphosate) are clear and Monsanto officials know it. With this case, we seek to ensure that the public is not misled by false advertising and product labeling in the marketplace. It is a critical step toward ensuring that people are fully informed before purchasing toxic products that can poison them, their families, and the communities where they live.”

OCA International Director, Ronnie Cummins said:

“Monsanto aggressively markets Roundup as ‘safe’ for humans and animals, despite newer studies indicating that glyphosate may be carcinogenic and its use may affect human and animal cardiovascular, endocrine, nervous and reproductive systems. No reasonable consumer seeing the claim on this product that glyphosate targets an enzyme not found ‘in people or pets’ would expect that Roundup actually targets an important bacterial enzyme found in humans and animals, affecting the health of their immune system.

Survey after survey shows that consumers rely on labels to guide their purchases and keep them and their families safe. When corporations mislead on the issue of a product’s effect on consumers and their families, they put everyone, but especially young children—in this case, playing in yards and parks—at risk, leaving the public no other recourse than to use the legal system to seek the removal of this misleading information.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, ruled that Beyond Pesticides and OCA presented enough evidence to support that Monsanto’s labeling of its flagship weedkiller, Roundup, misleads consumers.

Through their attorneys, Richman Law Group, Beyond Pesticides and OCA sued Monsanto on behalf of the general public, in Washington D.C., under the District of Columbia’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act, for misleading the public by labeling its popular weedkiller Roundup as “target[ing] an enzyme found in plants but not in people or pets.” The nonprofits allege that this statement is false, deceptive and misleading, because the enzyme targeted by glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, is, in fact, found in people and pets.

Beyond Pesticides is a national grassroots non-profit organization headquartered in the District of Columbia that works with allies in protecting public health and the environment to lead the transition to a world free of toxic pesticides. For more information, visit www.beyondpesticides.org.

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots non-profit 501(c)3 public interest organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability. For more information, visit: www.organicconsumers.org.

Richman Law Group (RLG) is a boutique law firm specializing in consumer protection and civil rights. RLG is dedicated to serving the greater good by holding large corporations accountable for actions that harm consumers, the environment, and the general public. For more information, visit: www.richmanlawgroup.com.

CONTACT:
Jay Feldman, Beyond Pesticides, 202-543-5450, [email protected]
Katherine Paul, Organic Consumers Assoc.: (207) 653-3090, [email protected]

(Beyond Pesticides, May 6, 2018) The Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) temporarily denied a permit to spray Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor with the toxic neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid. Your comments helped achieve the temporary decision and comments are now needed again to make the denial permanent. The public comment period closes on May 14, 2018.

Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor, with a number of unique ecosystems, and among the most pristine estuaries in the U.S., have been targeted with a plan to spray the toxic neonicotinoid insecticide imidacloprid to kill the native burrowing shrimp in beds of commercial Japanese oysters. This insecticide use will have deadly effects on keystone aquatic organisms. Based on a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) and public input, Ecology temporarily denied the permit.

Tell Ecology to restore the bays instead of spraying them!

Ecology bases its decision on these factors:

• Too great an impact on the marine organisms that live in the sediments where the pesticide application is proposed.
• Too much uncertainty about the long-term impacts associated with this pesticide.
• Negative impacts on fish and birds caused by killing sources of food and disrupting the food web.
• Even at low concentrations, imidacloprid has significant impacts on the environment.

Among the knowledge gaps found by Ecology are uncertainties over whether imidacloprid is effective for its stated purpose. These uncertainties are crucial, because no spraying can be justified if it is not effective.

The SEIS finds a number of uncertainties concerning the direct effects of spraying imidacloprid, including accumulation in sediments, long-term toxic impacts, impacts on zooplankton, sublethal effects, impacts on vegetation, impacts of degradation products, and the area that would be affected.

The SEIS does not evaluate synergistic impacts of imidacloprid combined with other chemicals (“inert” or non-disclosed ingredients, other chemicals used in the bays, and other pollutants) or other stressors. Among the organisms known to be at risk is the commercially important Dungeness crab, which has been shown to be susceptible to the effects of imidacloprid, and whose populations experience large natural fluctuations, putting them at risk of extinction.

Given the systemic mode of action of imidacloprid in crop plants, the permit cannot be approved without accounting for impacts on non-target animals consuming vegetation in treated areas.

Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor have been affected over the past century by human activity that has contributed to problems experienced by all who use the bays. The best alternative to address these problems is one that was not considered in the SEIS –restoring the habitat by removing stressors coming into the bays from streams flowing into them.

Please use or adapt and send the letter below to the Washington State Department of Ecology.

Letter to Washington State Department of Ecology:

I urge you to make final your temporary decision to deny a permit for the spraying of Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor with any quantity of imidacloprid. Although the “no action” alternative is acceptable, the only really effective and protective alternative is restoration of the bays’ ecology.

Although the SEIS and other studies identify “immediate adverse, unavoidable impacts to juvenile worms, crustaceans, and shellfish in the areas treated with imidacloprid and the nearby areas covered by incoming tides,” the SEIS also identifies “knowledge gaps,” which must be filled before permitting the use of another toxic chemical in Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor.

Crucially, the SEIS identifies uncertainties regarding the efficacy of imidacloprid for controlling burrowing shrimp. These uncertainties include questions of the extent and duration of the effect of imidacloprid, the lack of a treatment threshold, lack of data regarding resistance, lack of field research regarding clams, and efficacy of treatment in low temperature. Certainly, no use of imidacloprid can be supported without demonstrating efficacy.

The SEIS finds a number of knowledge gaps concerning the direct effects of spraying imidacloprid, including accumulation in sediments, long-term toxic impacts, impacts on zooplankton, sublethal effects, impacts on vegetation, impacts of degradation products, and the area that would be affected. These gaps must be filled before approving the use of any chemical.

Before allowing chemical use, Ecology must adequately address synergistic effects, including impacts of imidacloprid combined with other chemicals (“inert” ingredients, other chemicals used in the bays, and other pollutants) or other stressors. Among the organisms known to be at risk is the commercially important Dungeness crab, which has been shown to be susceptible to the effects of imidacloprid, and whose populations experience large natural fluctuations, putting them at risk of extinction.

Given the systemic mode of action of imidacloprid in crop plants, Ecology cannot approve use of imidacloprid without accounting for impacts on non-target animals consuming vegetation in treated areas.

Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor have been affected over the past century by human activity that has contributed to problems experienced by all who use the bays. Of the three options proposed, the No Action alternative is the best. However, what is truly necessary to address these problems is an option that was not considered in the SEIS –a plan to restore the habitat by removing stressors from streams flowing into the bays.

Thank you for your careful review of the SEIS and consideration of these comments.

Sincerely,

Submit comment by email: [email protected] or click here to:
Tell Ecology to restore the bays instead of spraying them!

(Beyond Pesticides, May 4, 2018) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt proposed a new rule, on April 24, that, if adopted, will restrict the use of certain kinds of science research in the agency’s writing of regulations. Titled “Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science,” the rule will permit EPA to consider only research studies for which the underlying data are publicly available when considering new “significant” regulations — typically, those estimated to impose costs of $100 million or more. Supporters of the rule say that EPA has, in crafting regulations in the past, relied on “secret science” — studies for which the underlying data cannot necessarily be accessed by members of the public.

At face value, this may sound reasonable. Administrator Pruitt and proponents call the proposed rule a plus for transparency that will boost public confidence in the science bases of EPA decision making. “Today is a red-letter day,” Mr. Pruitt told supporters at agency headquarters. “The science that we use is going to be transparent.” That so-called “transparency,” however, comes at a huge cost: the elimination of decades of scientific studies from consideration when EPA regulations are written.

In studies over the past few decades, researchers frequently collected data — often about personal, health, and medical status and practices — with subjects’ permission, and signed confidentiality agreements with those subjects, agreeing to keep the information private. Such data were anonymized and reported to the EPA with the requirement that subjects’ personal information not be made public. Trevor Nace of Forbes magazine writes of the proposed rule: “It literally throws out fundamental and hallmark environmental studies the EPA paid scientists to conduct and [which it used to] build the foundation of many of our air and water quality guidelines.” It should be noted that such studies have been rigorously peer reviewed, and vetted scientists can already obtain access to such anonymized data from the EPA, so the conservative claim that EPA has used “secret science” is misleading.

If enacted, critics say, the rule will cause researchers great difficulty in recruiting subjects who, understandably, would not necessarily want their data shared publicly. In addition, it would have particular impact on longitudinal (long-term) studies. Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy commented, “The best studies follow individuals over time, so that you can control all the factors except for the ones you’re measuring. . . . But it means following people’s personal history, their medical history. And nobody would want somebody to expose all of their private information.” She notes that such a rule would have disqualified the federal government from using groundbreaking research, including, for instance, the studies that linked neurological damage to exposure to leaded gasoline, or the 1993 Harvard University “Six Cities” study that established the association between fine-particle air pollution and premature death.

Opponents of the rule say it would have enormous deleterious impacts on EPA’s ability to protect humans and the environment from pesticides and other toxic chemicals, air pollution, and other threats. Public health and environmental groups, and scientists say that the rule would largely prevent the agency from using landmark, long-standing studies on the harmful effects of air pollution and pesticide exposure because such research often involves proprietary information or confidential medical or personal histories.

For years, conservatives have worked to discredit independent research EPA has used to explain and justify its bases for regulation, such as banning some dangerous chemicals, or limiting air pollution from burning coal and other fossil fuels. Academic and public health research have been particular targets. A rule such as the one proposed by Administrator Pruitt has long been sought by industry and some conservative politicians, including Representative Lamar Smith of Texas. A FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) yielded emails showing, among other facts, that Rep. Lamar met with Administrator Pruitt on January 9, 2018 — after he failed to get his 2017 “Honest and Open New EPA Science Treatment Act” passed in Congress — to pressure Mr. Pruitt to implement the “Honest” bill’s goals from inside the agency.

UCS spokesperson Yogin Kothari said the emails show that “the plan was crafted by political staff with little input from scientists. They also show that EPA’s political appointees are mostly concerned about industry, rather than environmental or health protections. . . . This idea to restrict the use of science at EPA was hatched solely and worked on almost exclusively by political appointees who are doing everything they can to ensure that independent science doesn’t get in the way of policy decisions at the agency. . . . It’s an effort to stack the deck in favor of industry that EPA is supposed to regulate.”

The day before the announcement of the rule, 985 scientists sent a letter, organized by UCS, to Administrator Pruitt urging him not to move ahead with the rule change. The letter said, “There are ways to improve transparency in the decision-making process, but restricting the use of science would improve neither transparency nor the quality of EPA decision making. If fully implemented, this proposal would greatly weaken EPA’s ability to comprehensively consider the scientific evidence across the full array of health effects studies. This would negatively impact EPA public protections.”

The proposed rule is subject to a 30-day comment period, and science groups are rallying to block its finalization. Legal experts say that, if implemented, it could trigger judicial challenges, noting that “in unanimous decisions in 2002 and 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the EPA is not legally obligated to obtain and publicize the data underlying the research it considers in crafting regulations.” Richard J. Lazarus, a professor of environmental law at Harvard University, said Administrator Pruitt would be “walking into a judicial minefield” if he told EPA to stop considering certain studies in its rule-making. He indicated that would be an arbitrary and capricious decision under the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs agency rule-making, and would “subject any agency regulation issued based on such a defective record to ready judicial invalidation.”

There are any number of unknowns related to the fate of this proposed new rule, including its potential impacts on pesticide registration with EPA, as required under FIFRA (the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act). As if the registration process were not already labyrinthine — and for much of the public, inscrutable — enough, this rule’s potential influence is not yet clear. In applying only to “significant regulatory actions,” it appears that the rule specifically may not apply to individual adjudications or permit proceedings, and therefore, not to pesticide registrations or re-registrations. Under this interpretation, EPA’s “more transparent science” would seem potentially to hamstring science-based efforts to protect public health, but greenlight industry in registering potentially harmful pesticides. In this scenario, the pesticide industry will have been given a “pass” that could allow it to continue, more or less, with business as usual.

On the other hand, the rule might backfire on Administrator Pruitt’s and the Trump administration’s goal of making life easier for industry. As Lisa M. Campbell and James V. Aidala set out in the Pesticide Law and Policy Blog, “For pesticide registrants [aka pesticide manufacturers], the rule poses significant potential issues. For example, registrants [could end up] spending millions of dollars on studies necessary to register products that are proprietary and protected from release to those who might use them to register their own products without compensating the owners; issues with regard to EPA’s reliance under the proposed rule on these registrant generated and FIFRA required studies will need to be considered carefully. As another example, EPA’s review of epidemiology data underlying its conclusions regarding chlorpyrifos and other organophosphate pesticide requirements potentially may be subject to more stringent requirements than they previously were.”

Nancy Beck, deputy assistant administrator of EPA’s chemicals office, and formerly of the American Chemistry Council, has opined on what the rule might mean for pesticide registration, for chemical manufacturers, and for regulation of chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). “This directive needs to be revised. Without change it will jeopardize our entire pesticide registration/re-registration review process and likely all TSCA risk evaluations,” Dr. Beck wrote. She also notes that actually making underlying research data publicly available represents a massive undertaking. Dr. Beck said, “Making data available is very different than requiring a publication requirement. Such a requirement would be incredibly burdensome, not practical and you would need to create a whole new arm of the publishing industry to publish these types of studies that nobody is interested in. . . . [There is] no incentive for anyone, anywhere to publish them.”

Richard Denison, a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, notes that “what Nancy Beck is ironically pointing to is [that] the same set of issues would fall on the industry, because it is not only whether the information would be made public or not, it’s the cost and burden associated with doing so.” The rule may also have a potentially chilling effect on the kinds of data industry would be willing to submit to EPA in seeking registration of pesticides or other chemicals.

Making such data public would likely be very expensive. There is not yet an official estimate of the costs associated with EPA obtaining and disseminating the data underlying studies, but the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has projected that Rep. Smith’s proposed bill, if enacted, would have cost the agency $250 million initially, and $1 million to $100 million annually. In 2015, the CBO estimated that the bill’s requirements about data would have reduced the number of studies EPA considered by half. Geophysicist Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, has voiced her concern that the rule would prevent the EPA from being able to use the best available scientific evidence.

The Washington Post notes that this proposed rule “reflects a broader effort already underway to shift how the EPA conducts and uses science to guide its work.” Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Center for Science and Democracy at UCS, adds, “With false claims about transparency, the political appointees at the EPA are drastically restricting the ability of the agency to rely on science. They are ordering EPA employees to put on blinders and only see the science that they want them to see. They are sacrificing the health of Americans in favor of special interests, a disturbing pattern for this Administration. It’s no coincidence that the same people calling for this change have been funded by the petrochemical and tobacco industries for years. Pruitt has turned his back on the American people to stick his snout deep in the trough of corruption.”

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/04/24/pruitt-to-unveil-controversial-transparency-rule-limiting-what-research-epa-can-use/?utm_term=.9b4dabe4f157 and http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/04/trump-s-epa-wants-stamp-out-secret-science-internal-emails-show-it-harder-expected

(Beyond Pesticides, May 3, 2018) Hawaii’s bill to ban the dangerous, neurotoxic pesticide, chlorpyrifos, passed its final hurdle this week in the state legislature. Governor David Ige is expected to readily sign SB3095 into law, in light of the unanimous support it received from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The statewide prohibition of chlorpyrifos will take effect beginning in January 2019. This legislative action marks the first time that any state in the country has passed an outright ban on the highly toxic organophosphate pesticide. While multiple scientific studies have determined that chlorpyrifos damages fetal brains and produces cognitive and behavioral dysfunctions, particularly in utero and in children, states have been slow to institute a complete prohibition, due to its widespread use in agriculture. Lawmakers in New Jersey and Maryland have recently tried unsuccessfully to pass similar bans. Hawaii’s bill contains a caveat that allows the state’s Department of Agriculture (DOA) to grant special permits for companies that argue that they need more time to phase-out chlorpyrifos, but that exemption will end at the close of 2022.

The new law also requires restricted use pesticide (RUP) users to report to the Hawaii’s DOA which ones they are applying on their land, crops, and in orchards, how much, and when and where they apply the chemicals. That information will be aggregated by county and publicly released in summary report on an annual basis. Such aggregated data enables researchers and policymakers to track yearly pesticide use trends by county and it can inform the development of public and environmental health protection policies.

But, according to Maui community activist, Autumn Ness, legislators substantially watered down the pesticide disclosure provision in SB3095, which was previously a robust, stand-alone bill. Instead of allowing public access to pesticide use data on an as-needed basis, which was what the advocates wanted, the bill requires DOA to only provide a summary of aggregated statistics on an annual basis. Since Hawaii is ground zero for chemical industry experimental testing of pesticides on cropland, the public has argued for the right-to-know what they are exposed to when pesticides drift off of test sites. Ms. Ness laments that this weak pesticide disclosure requirement will not automatically or easily allow communities to access site-specific data in instances where suspected acute exposures arise. Instead, the only way individuals or organizations may be able to view specific user data in a distinct location is to file a Universal Information Practices Act (UIPA) request, which legally requires an answer from DOA within 10 days but, in reality could take much longer, depending upon what is asked of the agency. This delay would not be helpful in cases of acute exposures.

In addition, the bill establishes a small schoolyard buffer zone, prohibiting companies from spraying highly toxic, RUPs within 100 feet of schools while they are in session. Similar to what happened with respect to the pesticide use disclosure provision, a strong, stand-alone pesticide buffer zone bill was originally introduced. It was added to the chlorpyrifos ban bill and severely weakened. The original provision was modeled on California’s pesticide buffer zone law. California’s law requires a quarter-mile pesticide exclusion zone around schools when they are in session, versus the 100 foot exclusion zone contained in the Hawaii bill. The only real similarities between the two is that they allow pesticides to be used near schools when they are not in session. In both cases, this could result in pesticides being sprayed during sporting events or other outdoor community activities that often take place on school campuses after hours.

Public pressure to prohibit chlorpyrifos has mounted in recent years due to increasing scientific evidence, which shows that even at low levels of exposure to pregnant women results in impaired learning, change in brain functions, and alter thyroid levels of children into adulthood. Females are especially at risk. A study conducted by the Columbia University Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH) found that chlorpyrifos in umbilical cord blood samples corresponded with a decrease in the psychomotor and mental development in three-year olds. Additional data collected by CCCEH researchers demonstrated that children exposed to high levels of chlorpyrifos experience developmental delays, attention deficit, hyperactivity, as well as other pervasive developmental disorders.

Knowledge of these gross impacts on developing fetuses and children motivated community members across the Hawaiian Islands to speak out against the use of chlorpyrifos and other pesticides near schools and to educate state lawmakers about their dangers. It took several years to create a groundswell of public support for the ban with people regularly speaking out against chlorpyrifos and other RUPs. Multiple court battles ensued, as did a relentless, high profile public campaign, backed by strong and unyielding leadership from key legislators.

Prior to the state legislature’s vote, advocates of the ban brought scientists and doctors to the Islands to discuss their research on high and low level exposures to noxious pesticides, describing in graphic detail the effects on fetuses, developing children, and adults. The Hawaii Reporter notes that, “Doctors wrote and spoke of their first-hand encounters with various health conditions known to be linked to pesticide exposure in large studies. Several physicians last year co-signed an appeal to the governor urging a ban on chlorpyrifos based on their concerns. They cited the findings of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) who noted that the risk to infant and children’s health and development is unambiguous.”

This quest for advancing public health in Hawaii above economic interests is far from over, and statewide health and environmental advocates do not plan to wallow in their victory for long. In fact, this week, in the face of strong public pressure, the state legislature passed a SB2571, which bans the sale and distribution of sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate. The chemicals are toxic to developing coral reefs and increase the coral’s susceptibility to bleaching. They also have been found to damage DNA in adults, according to study of the chemical’s effect on reefs in Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Once the Governor signs the bill, which is expected, it will take effect on January 1, 2021. And, again, Hawaii will lead the nation as the first state to ban toxic chemicals in sunscreen.

To oppose the continued allowance of chlorpyrifos and other noxious pesticides in your community, write or call your US Congressional Representative. Urge them to support the Protect Children, Farmers, and Farmworkers from Nerve Agent Pesticides Act of 2017 to safeguard schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces from the unnecessary exposure to this neurotoxin. Learn more about the fate, effects, and impacts of pesticides, including chlorpyrifos, by visiting Beyond Pesticides’ Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database. Also, consult Beyond Pesticides’ factsheet Children and Pesticides Don’t Mix, which cites peer-reviewed scientific literature on the health effects of pesticides.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources:  Civil Beat; Hawaii Reporter; Beyond Pesticides; Huffington Post;

(Beyond Pesticides, May 2, 2018) Granola, cereal, and wheat crackers all contain “a fair amount” of glyphosate, the herbicide in Monsanto’s popular Roundup, according to internal emails from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Although the results of these tests have not been formally released, FDA had stated it will be conducting tests for glyphosate in food. Previous reports have detailed the presence of glyphosate, the chemical classified as a “probable carcinogen,” in a wide range of foods and in people’s bodies.

Internal emails obtained by The Guardian through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveal communication between FDA scientists regarding glyphosate residues in common foods. One email, dated January 2017, detail one scientist’s results from foods taken from his own home.

“I have brought wheat crackers, granola cereal and cornmeal from home and there’s a fair amount in all of them,” FDA chemist Richard Thompson wrote to colleagues in the email last year regarding glyphosate. He further went on to write that broccoli was the only food he had “on hand” that he found to be glyphosate-free.

According to The Guardian, another FDA chemist Narong Chamkasem separately found “over-the-tolerance” levels of glyphosate in corn, detected at 6.5 parts per million, an FDA email states. The legal limit is 5.0 ppm. A level above what is currently allowed would normally be reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but an FDA supervisor wrote to an EPA official that the corn was not considered an “official sample”.

The FDA is charged with monitoring and testing food samples for pesticide residues for residue levels. However, despite glyphosate being the most widely used herbicide in the U.S., used on over 100 food crops, the agency only recently announced it would test for glyphosate under mounting public pressure to do so.  At the same time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) decided to abandon its plans for testing the U.S. food supply for glyphosate residues. USDA had previously tested soybeans for glyphosate residue in 2011, finding that 90% of samples contained residues between 0.26 ppm and 18.5 ppm, barely under the allowed food tolerance level of 20 ppm. The federal government’s pesticide monitoring program, which is run jointly by USDA, FDA, and EPA, was criticized by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2014 for its failure to test for the widely used herbicide.

A report by Food Democracy Now! and the Detox Project, Glyphosate: Unsafe on Any Plate, found high levels of glyphosate contamination in popular American food brands, such as Cheerios, Doritos, Oreos, Goldfish and Ritz Crackers, and Stacy’s Pita Chips. According to the report, the levels found in these products are above the levels associated with organ damage  (above 0.1 parts per billion(ppb)). Among 29 different foods tested, the highest levels detected were found in General Mills’ Original Cheerios, at 1,125.3 ppb. Stacy’s Simply Naked Pita Chips were the next highest, at 812.53 ppb. Other reports of the widespread presence of glyphosate residues find the chemical in breast milk,  in German beers,  feminine hygiene products, and bread, as well as in nearly 100% of Germans tested.

The Guardian details that along with glyphosate, the agency has been trying to measure residues of the herbicides 2,4-D and dicamba because of projected increased use of these weedkillers on new genetically engineered (GE) crops. The FDA spokesman said that the agency has “expanded capacity” for testing foods for those herbicides this year. The official findings should be released later this year or early in 2019 as part of its 2016 annual residue report.

Glyphosate became a focus of media attention following the 2015 World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classification of glyphosate as a “probable human carcinogen.” Since then, Monsanto has been hard at work trying to undermine findings that show its flagship product, glyphosate, is anything other than “safe.” However, its attempts to unduly influence and undermine scientific research and government review of its product has been disclosed widely in the press. EPA recently closed the public comment period for the human health and ecological assessments for glyphosate. On April 30, 2018, the day the comment period ended, public interest, food safety, and environmental organizations delivered over 165,000 public comments to EPA, urging the agency to ban glyphosate.

While federal oversight and regulation lag behind, environmental groups, like Beyond Pesticides, are urging localities to restrict or ban the use of glyphosate and other unnecessary toxic pesticides. Beyond Pesticides promotes these actions and many more through the Tools for Change webpage. This page is designed to help activists and other concerned citizens organize around a variety of pesticide issues on the local, state, and national level. Learn how to organize a campaign and talk to your neighbors about pesticides with our factsheets.

Consumers can also avoid glyphosate exposure by buying and supporting organic food and agriculture. Beyond Pesticides has long promoted the importance of organic in a sustainable food system, and works to promote the widespread transition of conventional farmland to organic production. Utilizing ecological pest management strategies, organic practices, and solutions that are not chemical-intensive is the most appropriate and long-term solution to managing unwanted plants, or weeds.

To find out more about the work Beyond Pesticides is doing on organic integrity and actions you can take, check out Keeping Organic Strong, or see all the reasons to go organic, visit Eating with a Conscience.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: The Guardian

(Beyond Pesticides, May 1, 2018) On April 27, 2018, European Union (EU) member states backed a proposal to further restrict uses of bee-toxic neonicotinoids finding the pesticides’ outdoor uses harm bees. These restrictions go beyond those already put in place in 2013, and now all outdoor uses of clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam will be banned. Uses will only be allowed in permanent greenhouses where contact with bees is not expected. This historic move in Europe comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) still drags its feet on finding neonicotinoids are too toxic for bees and other organisms and bans their use.

According to the European Commission, the protection of bees is an important issue since it concerns biodiversity, food production, and the environment. An EU committee approved the plan to tightly restrict the use of the insecticides, acting upon scientific advice this past February from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to tighten existing restrictions and protect bees, crucial pollinators. EFSA analyzed over 1,500 studies from academia, beekeeper associations, chemical companies, farmer groups, non-governmental organizations, and national regulators, and concluded that neonicotinoids do pose risks to honey bees and wild pollinators. In 2013, the EU placed a ban on the neonicotinoids on agricultural flowering crops, such as oilseed rape (canola), also based on an initial review by EFSA on the pesticides’ impact on bees.

Voting on the proposal had been postponed a number of times as countries were split on the move. However, the last meeting saw a majority voting in favor of the ban. Sixteen EU countries, including France, the UK, Germany, and Italy voted to ban the use of the three neonicotinoids. The new restrictions agreed to on April 27 go beyond the 2013 ban. All outdoor use of the three substances will be banned and the neonicotinoids in question will only be allowed in permanent greenhouses where no contact with bees is expected.

Environmental advocates welcomed the vote. Emi Murphy, a campaigner at Friends of the Earth said: “This a major victory for science, common sense and our under-threat bees. The evidence that neonicotinoid pesticides pose a threat to our bees is overwhelming.” Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis, welcomed the vote, stressing that “the Commission had proposed these measures months ago, on the basis of the scientific advice from the European Food Safety Authority. Bee health remains of paramount importance for me since it concerns biodiversity, food production and the environment.” The European Commission will now adopt the new regulations in the coming weeks which will go into effect by the end of 2018.

In responding to The Guardian, Dave Goulson, PhD, at the University of Sussex, said the EU ban was logical given the weight of evidence but that disease and lack of flowery habitats were also harming bees. “Also, if these neonicotinoids are simply replaced by other similar compounds, then we will simply be going round in circles. What is needed is a move towards truly sustainable farming,” he said.

 Numerous scientific studies implicate neonicotinoid pesticides as key contributors to the global decline of pollinator populations. EPA’s own scientists have found that neonicotinoids pose far-reaching risks not only to bees but to birds and aquatic invertebrates. EPA is currently reviewing public comments on its preliminary ecological and human health risk assessments for the neonicotinoids clothianidin, thiamethoxam and dinotefuran, and a preliminary ecological risk assessment for the neonicotinoid imidacloprid. EPA’s risk assessments find deadly impacts to birds from neonicotinoid-treated seeds, poisoned insect prey, and contaminated grasses. Researchers have found that tiny amounts of neonicotinoids are enough to cause migrating songbirds to lose their sense of direction. A recent study by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) researchers found neonics widespread in the Great Lakes at levels that harm aquatic insects, and potentially the aquatic food web—the foundation of healthy aquatic ecosystems. Canada’s pesticide regulatory agency has recommended banning the most widely used neonicotinoid, imidacloprid, based on harms to aquatic ecosystems.

Given this historic move in Europe, U.S. regulators must also take action to protect sensitive species from toxic neonicotinoids. Help push EPA to take substantive action on neonicotinoids by urging your U.S. Representative to support the Saving America’s Pollinators Act. With managed honey bee losses remaining at unsustainable levels and many wild pollinators at risk of extinction (1, 2, 3), it’s time, for the future of food and our environment, for the U.S. to finally protect pollinators.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: European Commission Press Release; The Guardian; BBC News

 Help Stop the Attack on Organic         Standards in the Farm Bill

(Beyond Pesticides, April 30, 2018) Organic standards are under attack in the Farm Bill, H.R. 2, passed by the Agriculture Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives and in language emerging in the Senate Agriculture Committee. This adds to the attacks on which we have previously taken action.

Tell Congress to Vote Against the Farm Bill if It Weakens Organic Standards

The Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) gives the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) broad authority and responsibility to ensure organic integrity. The Farm Bill contains provisions that:

• Will permit the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to sidestep the NOSB in allowing post-harvest handling substances (sanitizers) to be used in organic production;
• Change the classification of types of people who may be appointed to the NOSB by adding employees of farmers, handlers, and retailers; and
• Force consideration of the judgment of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) when those agencies find a material to meet their own (less stringent) criteria for use.

These provisions are a direct attack on the strength of organic standards. When OFPA was passed and placed under USDA authority, Congress established a board composed of members of the organic community –farmers, handlers/processors, retailers, environmentalists, public interest groups, scientists, and certifiers— to provide direction to USDA and maintain the integrity of the organic label. Organic production arose out of a concern about hazardous chemical-intensive practices and unprotective laws and regulations; hence, OFPA and standards recommended by the NOSB and adopted by USDA for organic production are more stringent than standards adopted by FDA and EPA. Now that organic production has become a nearly $50 billion dollar enterprise, politicians are under pressure from large producers that would like to get a share of the organic premium without meeting current standards. We must stop this attack and protect organic as a real choice for health and environmental protection.

These Farm Bill provisions will give USDA greater direct and indirect power to change the materials allowed in organic production to favor producers who do not meet all the criteria traditionally considered to be required of organic certified operations –such as hydroponics, poultry houses without real access to the outdoors, and dairy operations without meaningful pasture. Organic means something important. Let’s keep it that way!

Tell Congress to Vote Against the Farm Bill if It Weakens Organic Standards

See two other problem amendments in the Farm Bill: preemption of local regulation of pesticides, and elimination of EPA’s legally mandated scientific consultations on pesticides with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

Letter to Congress:

Please Vote Against the Farm Bill if It Weakens Organic Standards 

The Farm Bill (H.R. 2), as reported out of the House Agriculture Committee, will unacceptably weaken the standards now required for USDA certified organic food labeling. It does this by amending the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA), which currently gives the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) broad authority and responsibility to ensure organic integrity. The Farm Bill contains provisions that:

• Will permit USDA to sidestep the NOSB in allowing post-harvest handling substances (sanitizers) to be used in organic production;
• Change the classification of types of people who may be appointed to the NOSB by adding employees of farmers, handlers, and retailers; and
• Force consideration of the judgment of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) when those agencies find a material to meet their own (less stringent) criteria for use.

Please vote against H.R. 2 if these provisions are not removed.

They are a direct attack on the strength of organic standards. When OFPA was passed and placed under USDA authority, Congress established a board composed of members of the organic community –farmers, handlers/processors, retailers, environmentalists, public interest groups, scientists, and certifiers— to provide direction to USDA and maintain the integrity of the organic label. Organic production arose out of a concern about hazardous chemical-intensive practices and unprotective laws and regulations; hence, OFPA and the standards recommended by the NOSB and adopted by USDA for organic production are more stringent than standards adopted by FDA and EPA. Now that organic production has become a nearly $50 billion dollar enterprise, politicians are under pressure from large producers who would like to get a share of the organic premium without meeting current standards.

These Farm Bill provisions will give USDA greater direct and indirect power to change the materials allowed in organic production to favor producers who do not meet all the criteria traditionally considered to be required of certified operations –such as hydroponics, poultry houses without real access to the outdoors, and dairy operations without meaningful pasture. This is unacceptable to me as an organic consumer.

Please vote against the Farm Bill if these provisions are not removed.

(Beyond Pesticides, April 27, 2018)  After more than five years of intensive negotiations, European Members of Parliament (MEP) overwhelmingly passed the long-anticipated, new organic certification and labeling regulations, with 466 voting in favor, 124 against and 50 abstentions. While the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers, must formally adopt the regulations, their easy passage is expected. Regulations will take effect in January 2021. The new organic regulations are purported to provide more clarity to organic producers and consumers and to harmonize organic regulation across the EU. But, they also are likely to fuel disharmony with the U.S. National Organic Program (NOP) by failing to act swiftly to curtail fraudulent organic exports and by prohibiting hydroponics systems of production in organic, which the US currently allows.

“The development of organic production is a political objective of the EU,” According to the EP’s background document on the regulations. As a strategy for increasing organic agriculture, which now encompasses 6.7% of EU agricultural land, MEPs intend for the new regulations to encourage more farmers to go organic, enhance consumer trust in the EU organic logo, and improve the quality of organic food. According to the European Parliament’s press release, “Strict, risk-based checks will take place along the supply chain” to facilitate product traceability and boost consumer confidence in the authenticity of the organic foods they buy.

Similar to the situation in the U.S. where organic fraud is on the rise, the EU acknowledges the problem by requiring stricter fraud precautions to be taken. Equivalency rules that currently allow non-EU countries to comply with comparable but not exact standards will be phased-out, within the extended timeframe of five years. New regulatory language encourages operators who produce, prepare, import or use organic products to report suspicious imports to the appropriate authorities. Member states are also authorized to take their own enforcement action to avoid fraudulent imports and to notify other member states of their action.

It remains to be seen if these measures prove sufficient for U.S, organic consumers and producers to feel confident that the EU is affording adequate fraud protections for the organic food that passes through its borders. In the US, where at least half of the organic products sold are imported, a recent Inspector General Audit of USDA concluded that it was “unable to provide reasonable assurances” that imported commodities labeled organic were indeed coming from certified organic farms. The situation of rampant fraudulent imports has created substantial economic hardship for US organic grain and soy farmers, where per bushel prices and market share have plummeted since 2015. Executive Director of the Organic Farmers’ Agency for Relationship Marketing, Inc., John Bobbe, estimates that between 60 and 70 percent of organic imports may be fraudulent. “Some come through Turkey, where fraud is rampant, and some from India, where standards are not checked thoroughly for sanitation issues. He thinks Turkish organized crime is involved, with colleagues in Russia and Ukraine.”

The other important point of contention between the EU’s and U.S,’ organic standards is the EU’s explicit prohibition of hydroponic systems of organic food production to be certified organic. In reaffirming that organic systems of production depend upon thriving soil ecosystems, the EU regulation states that “plants should be produced on and in living soil in connection with the subsoil and bedrock. Consequently, hydroponic production should not be allowed nor growing plants in containers, bags or beds where the roots are not in contact with living soil.”

This provision flies in the face of the 2017 decision of the U.S. National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to allow soilless, hydroponically-produced organic food without requiring labeling. The NOSB overturned a previous 2010 Board decision to prohibit the practice despite widespread public opposition and demands to “keep organic in the soil.” In response, this spring U.S. farmers have created the Real Organic Project, which rejects hydroponic as an organic method and establishes other standards that the U.S. Department of Agriculture refused to implement, despite explicit recommendations from the NOSB. The Real Organic Project is establishing an add-on label to the USDA certified organic label that will let consumers know which commodities meet the standards of the organic law and consumer expectations. While hydroponic food production is already forbidden in the EU, the new regulations clarify instances where non-soil based, organic production is allowed such as in the production of ornamental plants, sprouted seeds, and herbs in pots. These allowances are justified in order to facilitate early growing stages of plants and in instances for which “no risk exists that the consumer is misled regarding the production method.”

Some EU countries, such as Denmark, Sweden and Finland, have been allowing the use of “demarcated beds in greenhouses” as organic, but in the agreement struck with Parliament those countries will be given 10 years phase-out the practice. An interim report is required to be produced on the status of those greenhouses within 5 years. Similar to the situation in the Nordic countries, some US organic certification agencies have been acting independently in the absence of regulations, certifying hydroponic operations and creating their own rules with respect to the organic soil requirement.  While some certifiers allow crops to be grown in an undefined “biodegradable substrate,” others do not. This has created confusion in the marketplace and angered many farmers and consumers who note that the text in the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 (OFPA) specifically states that farmers shall “foster soil fertility, primarily through the management of the organic content of the soil through proper tillage, crop rotation, and manuring.” It makes clear that soil health management is central to organic systems of production as evidenced by the detailed expectations of organic farmers in their annual organic crop and animal production system plan.

Other organic management practices strengthened by the new EU regulations include increasing data collection on organic seed and organic animal availability. The allowed use of conventional seeds and animals in organic production is scheduled to terminate by 2035, but that date could change depending upon the progress made. Mixed organic and conventional production by the same farmer will still be allowed, provided that the two systems of production are clearly delineated. To make it easier for small farmers to enter into organic farming, a group certification will be allowed. This issue has been raise on several occasions in the U.S. but has been rejected to date.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources:  News European Parliament; Food Navigator; Cornucopia

(Beyond Pesticides, April 26, 2018) Each year, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) publishes its Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce™. The guide includes the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15” lists of conventionally grown produce items that, respectively, are the most heavily tainted by toxic pesticide residue, and by contrast, have little if any residue. EWG analyzes testing conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Pesticide Data Program to arrive at its annual assessment. Its report for 2018 found that nearly 70% of conventional produce is contaminated with residue and/or breakdown byproducts of one or more of the 230 pesticides that USDA evaluated.

The top items on the 2018 Dirty Dozen list include strawberries, spinach, nectarines, apples, and grapes. One-third of all the strawberry samples harbored 10 or more pesticides, and one sample showed residue of 22 different compounds. Pesticide contamination was found in 97% of spinach samples, 94% of nectarines, 90% of apples, 96% of grapes, and 99% of peaches. Topping the 2018 Clean 15 list of the least-toxic conventionally grown produce items are avocados (99+% of samples tested negative for pesticides), sweet corn (98+%), pineapples (90%), onions (90+%), and cabbage (86%). EWG again this year added hot peppers as the 13^th item on its Dirty “Dozen” list. Although they do not meet EWG’s standard ranking criteria, nearly 75% were contaminated, and often, with residues of neurotoxic insecticides.

Conventionally grown crops are subject to chemically intensive practices, including the use of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and various petrochemical inputs, such as synthetic “fertilizers.” These stand in contrast to organic practices, which Beyond Pesticides endorses as the only safe and sustainable approach to agriculture. The risks of pesticide residues to human health are not the only reasons to go organic; these compounds also represent threats to farmers and farmworkers, and to our soil, water, air, biodiversity, pollinators, and rural communities. Beyond Pesticides’ database, Eating with a Conscience, evaluates impacts — on the environment and on farmworkers — of the chemicals used, domestically and internationally, on major food crops.

The top-level takeaway from the EWG report is that a huge portion of the U.S.population is necessarily consuming a virtual smorgasbord of pesticides every day, and — as Beyond Pesticides recommends — would do well to shift its consumption habits to organic. An apparent irony is that a healthful diet includes plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, yet much of the produce people consume likely comes laced with hazards associated with those pesticides. Those health risks include asthma, autism and learning disabilities, birth defects and reproductive dysfunction, diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, and several types of cancer.

The EWG 2018 report references a recent study that found lower fertility rates associated with women’s consumption of high-pesticide produce. (Study subjects were women undergoing infertility treatment with assisted reproductive technology.) Other emerging evidence points to reduced semen quality associated with dietary exposures through consumption of food with residues. In 2012, The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a report that said that “children have ‘unique susceptibilities to [pesticide residues’] potential toxicity.’ The organization cited research that linked pesticide exposures in early life to pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function and behavioral problems.” Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst with EWG, notes that “avoiding pesticides is especially important when women are pregnant [or] planning to get pregnant, or parents are feeding kids.”

It should be noted that there is no surefire way to wash pesticide residue from produce. Not only does produce have pores through which pesticides can be ingested into the body of the vegetable or fruit, but also, some pesticides are designed to penetrate into the interior tissues, making washing irrelevant.

For consumers, buying and eating organic is the obvious way to avoid the risks associated with consumption of chemical residues on and in food. Indeed, a 2015 study out of the University of Washington found that “people who report they often or always buy organic produce had significantly lower quantities of organophosphate insecticides in their urine samples. This was true even though they reported eating 70 percent more servings of fruits and vegetables per day than adults who reported they rarely or never purchase organic produce.”

The refrain that organic food is expensive belies the complexity and relative inscrutability of the dominant food system. Beyond Pesticides’ article, “The Real Story on the Affordability of Organic Food,” lays out the hidden costs and risks of conventional, chemical-intensive agriculture, and offers helpful ideas on eating organic on a budget. The Clean 15 can be a help in this regard, but the list doesn’t tell the whole story. Items on it exhibit minimal residues, but those “cleaner” food commodities may be grown with pesticides that can contaminate aquifers and waterways, persist in soil, compromise the health of farmworkers and local communities, and kill wildlife — all while not showing up at detectable levels on our food. Check out the Eating with a Conscience database to see, for example, what chemicals are used on avocados, sweet corn, and onions.

Beyond Pesticides advocates strongly for organics. USDA’s organic certification is the only system of food labeling that is subject to independent public review and oversight. Organic certification ensures that food is produced using practices rooted in soil biology, biodiversity, and plant health — eliminating toxic chemicals, commonly used in the production and processing of food, that harm everything but the manufacturers’ bottom lines. Shifting to organics has benefits far beyond human health: the choices people make about what they buy and consume have direct impacts on the health of those who grow and harvest food, and on the health of the environment.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources: https://www.ewg.org/foodnews and http://www.ehn.org/worst-foods-for-pesticides-2558353116.html

(Beyond Pesticides, April 25, 2018)  A class-action lawsuit against two manufacturers of neonicotinoid insecticides is moving ahead in Quebec, Canada after an appeal to block the case by the Canadian government and the chemical companies, Bayer and Syngenta, was dismissed. In February 2018, the case, brought by a beekeeper, was allowed to proceed to trial by the Quebec Superior Court.

Quebec queen bee breeder, Steve Martineau, conducted tests on water and his dead and dying bees and found traces of neonicotinoids. His suit alleges that Bayer and Syngenta were negligent in the manufacture and sale of neonicotinoids in Quebec, and are responsible for damages that he and other class members suffered under Article 1457 of the Quebec Civil Code. Bayer and Syngenta challenged the application on a number of grounds including the assumption that they had manufactured the neonicotinoids which killed Martineau’s bees. The class in this case was authorized for all persons in Quebec who own or owned bees in the affected area since 2006. Mr. Martineau estimates he has lost about $20,000 a year to present due to the effects of neonicotinoids on his bee population (Martineau v. Bayer CropScience Inc. CALN/2018-007)

“We’re suing on behalf of Quebec beekeepers whose bees were non-productive or killed,” Mr. Martineau’s lawyer, Samy Elnemr said. In addition to the Quebec class-action suit, a Canada-wide lawsuit against neonicotinoid manufacturers is also being prepared to be filed and will be put before the courts soon.

On February 19, 2018, the provincial government introduced new restrictions on pesticides considered harmful to honey bees, including neonicotinoids. Under the changes, farmers will have to get permission from a certified agronomist before using certain pesticides on crops.  The restricted pesticides include three types of neonicotinoids, as well as chlorpyrifos and atrazine, which has been banned in Europe for more than a decade. To ensure the implementation of these new regulations goes smoothly, the Environment Ministry will establish a monitoring committee to oversee the process. The province has already allocated $14 million over five years to assist farmers in reducing pesticide risks and adapting to the new measures. Advocates say the new rules represent a compromise. These chemicals may continue to be used, but inserting agronomic experts with an eye for both the economic and health concerns surrounding the use of highly toxic pesticides into the process may be a strategy to significantly reduce pesticide use. The good news is that by also improving recordkeeping, Quebec’s strategy can be closely evaluated to ensure the approval process is not simply a rubber stamp for pesticide use.

Numerous scientific studies implicate neonicotinoid pesticides as key contributors to the global decline of pollinator populations. Research on neonicotinoids has been consistent in linking their use to reduced learning in bees, as well as other impacts, such as those on colony size, and reproductive success. Studies looking at effects on birds reports that songbirds exposed to widely used insecticides, like neonicotinoids, fail to properly orient themselves for migration, the first such study that adds weight to arguments that pesticides are a likely cause in the decline of migratory bird populations.  U.S. beekeepers lost an unsustainable 33% of their hives between 2016 and 2017.

Neonicotinoids are also detected regularly in the nation’s waterways at concentrations that exceed acute and chronic toxicity values for sensitive organisms. A new report from the U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS) finds neonicotinoid contamination of the Great Lakes that threatens aquatic life.The most recent aquatic assessment for imidacloprid finds that imidacloprid threatens the health of U.S. waterways with significant risks to aquatic insects and cascading effects on aquatic food webs. As a result of risks to aquatic organisms, the Canadian pesticide regulatory agency has recommended banning imidacloprid, a decision on which has been delayed. In Europe, a recent survey finds that streams across the United Kingdom (UK) are contaminated with neonicotinoids. The European Commission met on December 12 and 13, 2017 to decide on a proposal to extend the 2013 neonicotinoid ban to all outdoor crops, but this decision was delayed. The issue is expected to be on the agenda again in 2018.

Help push EPA to take substantive action on neonicotinoids by urging your Representative to support the Saving America’s Pollinators Act. With managed honey bee losses remaining at unsustainable levels and many wild pollinators at risk of extinction (1, 2, 3), it’s time, for the future of food and our environment, for the U.S. to finally protect pollinators.

Source: CBC Radio Canada

(Beyond Pesticides, April, 24, 2018) On April 19, 2018, an Appellate Court in California sided with the State of California, affirming that Monsanto’s glyphosate can be listed as a probable carcinogen under the state’s Proposition 65 and rejecting Monsanto’s challenge to law. The state will not only move ahead with warning labels on products that contain glyphosate but also prohibit discharge of the pesticide into public waterways.

Monsanto’s lawsuit challenged the 2015 decision by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) to list glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide, Roundup, under California’s Proposition 65. Proposition 65 requires notification and labeling of all chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm, and prohibits their discharge into drinking waters of the state.

In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic.”  Under the Labor Code listing mechanism of Proposition 65, substances identified by IARC must be listed in the state of California as known to cause cancer. This listing requires warning labels on products and the listed substances are subject to limits on discharges into surface waters. California added glyphosate to the list of cancer-causing chemicals in July 2017 but was challenged by Monsanto and its allies for carrying out the state’s law.

Monsanto’s claim that the state was illegally delegating lawmaking powers to an unaccountable foreign agency, IARC. In rejecting that argument, the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Fresno preserved California’s authority to list glyphosate as a possible carcinogen.  Presiding Justice Brad Hill said in the court’s 3-0 ruling that the U.S. and 24 other nations belong to a council that governs the agency. “[The agency’s] reputation and authority on the world stage — and relatedly its funding — is dependent, in part, on its work being accepted as scientifically sound,” Justice Hill said. He followed that the state, through its voters, had exercised lawmaking powers to require warnings on potentially dangerous products, and legally left factual decisions to an internationally supervised body.

“All California consumers have the right to know that glyphosate is considered a probable carcinogen, and Proposition 65 ensures that the public obtains that knowledge,” said Rebecca Spector, West Coast Director at Center for Food Safety that intervened in the case. “We are pleased that the California Appellate Court prevented Monsanto’s attempt to keep the public in the dark about potential hazards from their products.”

Monsanto has been hard at work trying to undermine findings that show its flagship product, glyphosate, is anything other than “safe.” However, its attempts to unduly influence and undermine scientific research and government review of its product has been disclosed widely in the press. This has prompted the European Parliament to set up a special committee to look into the European Union’s (EU) authorization procedure for pesticides, in light of their recent controversial review of glyphosate. It was reported that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) copied dozens of pages from a Monsanto study in reaching its conclusion that glyphosate is “unlikely to pose a carcinogenic hazard to humans.” EFSA’s recommendation was supposed to provide an independent analysis for EU member states when deciding to renew the chemical. Last year, the European Parliament banned Monsanto lobbyists from committee meetings and digital resources, as well as prohibiting Monsanto lobbyists from meeting with any Member of the European Parliament. This was an attempt to limit Monsanto’s influence on the EU review process amid mounting public pressure.

In December 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), declared that glyphosate is likely not carcinogenic, conflicting with IARC’s 2015 classification. Some charge that EPA’s assessment relied heavily on industry studies to arrive at its conclusion, and ignored its own guidelines for assessing cancer risks. EPA now has a public comment period open for its human health and ecological assessment which conclude that the agency is not considered with glyphosate exposures, despite evidence to the contrary warranting a precautionary stance on the chemical’s continued use.

Action is needed to protect communities from glyphosate. Work to pass policies that restrict not only glyphosate but the entire range of toxic synthetic pesticides registered by EPA. Beyond Pesticides has resources to help you get started, including an organizing guide, model policy, and list of less toxic, organic compatible products. For more information on IARC’s glyphosate cancer classification and the IARC review process, see Beyond Pesticides’ article in our journal Pesticides and You.

Source: Center for Food Safety; SF Gate

(Beyond Pesticides, April 23, 2018) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting comments on its human health and environmental risk assessments of glyphosate (sold as Roundup™, Rodeo™, and many other products) until April 30. Evidence is mounting that glyphosate products cause cancer and many other human health and environmental problems.

Sign the petition asking EPA to ban glyphosate.

Despite the prevalent myth that this widely used herbicide is harmless, glyphosate is associated with a wide range of illnesses, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, genetic damage, liver and kidney damage, and endocrine disruption, as well as environmental damage, including water contamination and harm to amphibians. Researchers have also determined that the “inert” ingredients in glyphosate products, especially polyethoxylated tallow amine or POEA –a surfactant commonly used in glyphosate and other herbicidal products— are even more toxic than glyphosate itself. Monsanto, manufacturer of glyphosate, formulates many products (such as Roundup™ and Rodeo™) and markets formulations exclusively used on genetically engineered (GE) crops. Glyphosate is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world, due in large part to the increased cultivation of GE crops that are tolerant of the herbicide.

This petition summarizes the reasons glyphosate should be banned. More information can be found in Beyond Pesticides’ comments.

Sign the petition asking EPA to ban glyphosate.

For even greater effectiveness, use the information in this petition and Beyond Pesticides’ comments to submit your own comments at Regulations.gov.

Letter/Petition

Docket No. EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0361

EPA must cancel registrations of products containing glyphosate, based on information in the agency’s risk assessments and other available research. Glyphosate poses unreasonable adverse effects on humans and the environment, as outlined below and explained in greater detail in comments submitted by Beyond Pesticides.

Despite the prevalent myth it is harmless, glyphosate is associated with a wide range of illnesses, including non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, genetic damage, liver and kidney damage, and endocrine disruption, as well as environmental damage, including water contamination and harm to amphibians. Researchers have also determined that the “inert” ingredients in glyphosate products, especially polyethoxylated tallow amine or POEA –a surfactant commonly used in glyphosate and other herbicidal products— are even more toxic than glyphosate itself. Monsanto, manufacturer of glyphosate, formulates many products (such as Roundup™ and Rodeo™) and markets formulations exclusively used on genetically engineered (GE) crops. Glyphosate is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world, due in large part to the increased cultivation of GE crops that are tolerant of the herbicide.

Exposure to glyphosate has been increasing steadily. As a result of its widespread use, glyphosate residues are detected in tissues and excretions of farm animals, as well as human urine. Glyphosate accumulates in Roundup Ready® soybeans, which are genetically engineered to be herbicide-tolerant, and exhibit a nutritional profile different from that of organic and non-GE soybeans.

EPA must take a precautionary approach when considering continued and expanded uses. Although EPA’s assessment focuses only on the active ingredient, glyphosate, EPA must investigate the totality of glyphosate formulations and their potential for adverse impacts, which have the most relevance to human and environmental health. Glyphosate formulations are more toxic than the active ingredient alone, a fact recognized by EPA in its ecological assessment, which includes formulated glyphosate products in its review.

Although EPA considers glyphosate to be “of relatively low oral and dermal acute toxicity,” some glyphosate products are of higher acute toxicity, primarily due to eye and/or skin irritation. Symptoms following exposure to glyphosate formulations include: swollen eyes, face, and/or joints; facial numbness; burning and/or itching skin; blisters; rapid heart rate; elevated blood pressure; chest pains, congestion; coughing; headache; and nausea. In developmental toxicity studies using pregnant rats and rabbits, glyphosate caused treatment-related effects in high-dose groups, including diarrhea, decreased body weight gain, nasal discharge, and death.

As documented by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2015, glyphosate causes cancer. IARC classifies glyphosate as a Group 2A “probable” carcinogen, which means that the chemical is probably carcinogenic to humans based on sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals. As of July 7, 2017, glyphosate is listed as a cancer-causing chemical under California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65). This requires that cancer warning labels be placed on end-use glyphosate products in California. Glyphosate has been specifically linked to non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

Glyphosate causes DNA and chromosomal damage in human cells. Glyphosate and its formulated products adversely affect embryonic, placental, and umbilical cord cells, affect fetal development, and increase the risk for spontaneous abortion. Chronic, ultra-low-dose exposure to glyphosate in drinking water results in adverse impacts on the health of liver and kidneys. Glyphosate is considered to be an endocrine disruptor. It can cause changes to DNA function, resulting in the onset of chronic disease.

Glyphosate disrupts a crucial pathway for manufacturing aromatic amino acids in plants and bacteria. It has been patented as an antibiotic. The destruction of bacteria in the human gut is a major contributor to disease, and the destruction of soil microbiota leads to unhealthy agricultural systems with increasing dependence on agricultural chemicals. Disturbing the microbiota contributes to a whole host of “21^st century diseases,” including diabetes, obesity, food allergies, heart disease, antibiotic-resistant infections, cancer, asthma, autism, irritable bowel syndrome, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and more. The rise in these same diseases is closely correlated with the use of glyphosate herbicides, and glyphosate exposure can produce inflammation that is at the root of these diseases. Glyphosate appears to have more negative impacts on beneficial bacteria, allowing pathogens to flourish. Its use –like use of all antibiotics— increases antibiotic resistance.

Glyphosate has the potential to contaminate surface waters and is not broken down readily by water or sunlight. Surveys detect glyphosate and its degradate aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) in surface water, as well as in rain, in soil and sediment samples, in ditches and drains, and in wastewater treatment plants.

Residues of glyphosate may persist in soils and cause harmful changes, potentially reducing crop yields. Concerns for soil health from long-term glyphosate use include reduction of nutrient availability for plants and organisms; disruption of organism diversity, especially in the areas around plant roots; reductions of beneficial soil bacteria; increases in plant root pathogens; disturbed earthworm activity; reduced bacterial nitrogen fixation; and compromised growth and reproduction in some soil and aquatic organisms.

Glyphosate use directly impacts a variety of non-target animals, including insects, earthworms, amphibians, and fish, and indirectly impacts birds and small mammals.Please cancel the registrations of glyphosate products.

(Beyond Pesticides, April 20, 2018) There is an extraordinary attack on local community rights to protect people and the environment from pesticides in the Republican Farm Bill, passed by the Agriculture Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives on April 18 on a straight party line vote. The language inserted in the Farm Bill amends the federal pesticide law with a provision that prohibits local governments from restricting pesticide use on private property within their jurisdictions. Local laws in two states, Maine and Maryland, will be overturned with final passage of this law in the U.S. House and Senate. In those 43 states that forbid local pesticide laws by state law, future reconsideration of this prohibition, pushed by the chemical and pest management industry, will be foreclosed. Local laws protecting the environment and public health have historically emerged out of local governments, with laws related to recycling, smoking, pet waste, building codes, and zoning.

The fight to defend the authority of local governments to protect people and the environment has been ongoing for decades, reaching the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991. The Court specifically upheld the authority of local governments to restrict pesticides throughout their jurisdictions under federal pesticide law. In Wisconsin Public Intervenor v. Mortier, the Court ruled that federal pesticide law does not prohibit, or preempt, local jurisdictions from restricting the use of pesticides more stringently than the federal government. According to Mortier, however, states do retain authority to take away local control. In response to the Supreme Court decision, the pesticide lobby immediately formed a coalition, called the Coalition for Sensible Pesticide Policy, and developed boilerplate legislative language that restricts local municipalities from passing ordinances on the use of pesticides on private property. The Coalition’s lobbyists descended on states across the country, seeking and passing, in most cases, preemption legislation that was often identical to the Coalition’s wording.

Since the passage of those state laws, there have been numerous efforts to preempt local authority in states that do not prohibit local action on pesticides, most recently in Maine. An industry-backed attempt to enact pesticide preemption in the state of Maine failed after bill LD 1853 was voted down in March. The bill resembled a similar bill that failed in the same legislative committee in 2017. Similarly, in Maryland, the chemical industry was unsuccessful in its attempts in the mid-1990s to pass legislation seeking explicit preemption in Maryland. With an ever increasing number of communities stepping up to protect their residents and unique local environment from pesticide poisoning and contamination, the repeated introduction of preemption legislation means that health advocates and forward-thinking communities must continue to remain vigilant, and ready to fight to maintain their right to home rule. Having failed to curtail local action and the growing number of communities deciding to act, the chemical industry is flexing its muscle with a sneak attack in a Congress friendly to its position.

Contact your member of Congress, and let them know that legislation that takes away local authority to restrict pesticides throughout local jurisdictions is undemocratic and dangerous to the protection of people and the environment. Tell your elected officials (see suggested language below) that Subtitle B, Section (b) Uniform Regulation of Pesticides, (3) Condition on More Restrictive Regulation must be removed from the 2018 Farm Bill, H.R. 2. To find links, go to the contact pages for your U.S. Representative, click here, and for your U.S. Senators, click here.

Suggested Language

Letter to Members of U.S. House of Representatives and Senate

Language in the Farm Bill amends federal pesticide law to prohibit local governments from restricting pesticide use on private property within their jurisdictions. However, the rights of local governmental jurisdictions under existing pesticide law, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), has been left to the states since the law’s adoption. In fact, local laws protecting the environment and public health have historically emerged out of local governments, with laws related to recycling, smoking, pet waste, building codes, and zoning.

The rights of local governments to protect people and the environment was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991. The Court specifically upheld the authority of local governments to restrict pesticides throughout their jurisdictions under federal pesticide law. In Wisconsin Public Intervenor v. Mortier, the Court ruled that FIFRA does not prohibit, or preempt, local jurisdictions from restricting the use of pesticides more stringently than the federal government. According to Mortier, however, states may restrict local control as a matter of state authority.

Please make sure that the provision preempting local authority, included in the House Agriculture Committee passed Farm Bill, does not become law. Please remove this language: Subtitle B, Section (b) Uniform Regulation of Pesticides,”(3) CONDITION ON MORE RESTRICTIVE REGULATION.—Section 24(a) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (7 U.S.C. 136v(a)) is amended by striking ‘‘A State may’’ and inserting ‘‘A State, but not a political subdivision of a State, may.’’

Please let me know your position on this provision, destructive to the democratic decision making process that protects health and the environment.

Sincerely,

[Name]

Legislation that passed the Agriculture Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on April 18, 2019:

H.R. 2 –Farm Bill 2018

Subtitle B—Regulatory Reform PART I—STATE LEAD AGENCIES UNDER FEDERAL INSECTICIDE, FUNGICIDE, AND RODENTICIDE ACT SEC. 9101. RECOGNITION AND ROLE OF STATE LEAD AGENCIES.

(b) UNIFORM REGULATION OF PESTICIDES.—

. . .

(2) AUTHORITY TO ESTABLISH AND MAINTAINUNIFORM REGULATIONS.—Section 23(a)(1) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (7 U.S.C. 136u(a)(1)) is amended by inserting after ‘‘enforcement of this Act,’’ the following: ‘‘to authorize the State or Indian tribe to establish and maintain uniform regulation of pesticides within the State or for the Indian tribe,’’.

(3) CONDITION ON MORE RESTRICTIVE REGULATION.—Section 24(a) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (7 U.S.C. 136v(a)) is amended by striking ‘‘A State may’’ and inserting ‘‘A State, but not a political subdivision of a State, may.’’

Amends:

7 U.S. Code § 136v [Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)]- Authority of States

(a) In general

A State may regulate the sale or use of any federally registered pesticide or device in the State, but only if and to the extent the regulation does not permit any sale or use prohibited by this subchapter.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

(Beyond Pesticides, April 19, 2018) With the passage yesterday of the Republican amendments to the 2018 Farm Bill, H.R. 2, in the U.S. House of Representatives’ Agriculture Committee, Congress has launched a full-frontal attack on the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and required pesticide reviews to protect endangered species. According to the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), the bill, on a party-line vote, will “completely exempt the use of pesticides from ESA, effectively dooming hundreds of endangered species to extinction and making it legal to kill any endangered species with a pesticide at almost any time.” The legislation is sponsored by House Agriculture Committee Chairman U.S. Representative Mike Conaway (R-Texas).

The Farm Bill’s ESA provision will do away with EPA’s legally-mandated scientific consultations with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the two main agencies charged with government oversight of species protection. If Congress fails to eliminate this undesirable provision from the Farm Bill, it is viewed as a tragic end to a success story, which began with the enactment of ESA in 1973. The law effectively prevented the extinction of 99 percent of species under its jurisdiction over the past 45 years. Few federal laws have engendered such tangible success with such widespread societal benefits and for so long, affording protections to more than 1,400 species, many of which are on the pathway to recovery.

Attacks on ESA have been a regular occurrence since the inauguration of the 115^th United States Congress on January 3, 2017. This Congress already has seen at least 63 “legislative attacks seeking to strip federal protections from specific species or undercutting the Endangered Species Act,” according to CBD.  Although ESA attacks have occurred at an accelerated rate during this session of Congress, the organization has documented a total of 164 bills introduced into Congress which have sought to “dismantle critical species protections” between 2010 and 2015. This latest rash of attacks is occurring at a feverish pace, hidden in proposed legislation such as a recent Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Bill which would exempt the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from ESA requirements. Federal wildlife experts have observed that some of FEMA’s activities are already threatening a variety of salmon species and Puget Sound killer whales with extinction. The exemption of FEMA activities from ESA scientific reviews would only make matters worse.

While Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee claim that the bill adds “common sense reforms” to an “onerous and conflicting” ESA process that needs to be “modernized,” opponents of the Farm Bill provision label it a “poison pill.” Committee Chair, K. Michael Conaway, argues that despite four plus decades of reviewing species-by-species, EPA does not have the resources to continue to do so.  He wants to “protect crops” with pesticides and “figure a way to protect species.” But, as Beyond Pesticides has repeatedly demonstrated in its Daily News, the two are not compatible.

The organophosphate insecticides chlorpyrifos, malathion, and diazinon have put the continued existence of endangered species and their critical habitats at risk, according to a  December 2017 Biological Opinion of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). That Opinion states that EPA’s proposed registration of pesticides containing any one of these three chemicals is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of 25 to 38 of the 77 listed species and adversely modify 18 to 50 of the 50 designated critical habitats.

Additionally, EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, halted the near-complete process of prohibiting all uses of the notoriously noxious, neurotoxic chlorpyrifos, which has been documented to harm farmworkers and cause developmental impairments to children in utero. While a limited, nationwide ban already exists for residential use of chlorpyrifos, Hawaii is considering a permanent prohibition for all uses.

Over 60 agriculture groups signed a letter in January telling House Agriculture Committee leaders that the current ESA review and permitting process is “redundant” and “provides no environmental benefit, but instead imposes additional costs on farms and businesses.” The opposing side vehemently disagrees and attributes the law’s success to its science-driven determinations that defy partisan politics. In a letter to the National Governors’ Association from over three hundred environmental, community health, and conservation groups, the signers argue that “the Act has been so successful in large part because it requires that science and not short-term political and economic concerns guide decisions about whether species are at risk and how they should be protected and recovered.”

According CBD experts, “No law has been more important in preventing the extinction of wildlife, including bald eagles, gray whales and the peregrine falcon.” Due to the multiple protections afforded by ESA, many species are enroute to recovery. In addition, essential habitats comprising millions of acres of forests, beaches, and wetlands also have been protected.

Jordan Giaconia, Sierra Club’s federal policy associate for defense says that the ramifications of the Farm Bill proposal are far reaching and views this pesticide-first approach to the Farm Bill as an “unprecedented attack on the Endangered Species Act.” He laments that “it’s unfortunately not surprising. It falls in line with Scott Pruitt’s efforts to undermine scientifically based environmental protections.”

On the heels of the recent Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Report (IPBES), which warns of the perils of an impending biodiversity crisis if international governments do not change course, as previously reported by Beyond Pesticides, it would be unconscionable for Congress to act with such a blatant disregard for future generations and the ecosystems that support their survival.  The IPBES Report unearths the alarming plight faced by two-fifths of the world’s population due to of the worsening of land degradation, declining species biodiversity, and the intensification of climate change. It documents how heightened pesticide use has adversely affected species diversity of both target and non-target species and has negatively impacted food and water security. This timely report further reinforces the need to protect threatened and endangered species, their habitats, and the ESA.

Write or call your House Congressional Representative and urge her/him to contest the provision in the Farm Bill that would decimate the ESA’s scientific review of pesticide impacts and severely weaken protections for endangered and threatened species and their habitats.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources:  Roll Call; Endangered Species Coalition

(Beyond Pesticides, April 18, 2018) A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), Betrayal at the USDA, concludes that a myriad of personnel and policy decisions by Trump administration Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, in his first year, are harming the public. Enacted through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), these decisions have weakened public safety and health protections, ignored science, and advantaged agribusiness interests over those of the public, farmers, and rural communities.

Given the mission of USDA — to provide “leadership on food, agriculture, natural resources, rural development, nutrition, and related issues based on sound public policy, the best available science, and efficient management” — the U.S. population would understandably expect that the agency would make good on that mission. People might assume the agency would employ sound science in promoting innovative, sustainable agricultural practices, and in helping maintain a domestic food system that ensures a safe and healthful food supply, supports farmers’ success, and protects the natural resources on which both of those depend. UCS concludes that, in the Trump era, people would be wrong.

USDA has considerable, albeit not-always-obvious, impact on people’s everyday lives. As the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) notes, “The agency’s programs and policies help shape farmers’ decisions about what to grow and how to grow it; the cost, availability, and safety of the food we all eat; the quality of the nation’s soil and water resources; and the social and economic well-being of our communities — especially rural communities.” In addition, USDA has typically invested billions of dollars annually on agriculture and food research, representing significant support for the research science community and the discoveries that emerge from this work, as well as for a growing knowledge base to inform decision making and public policy.

Early concerns expressed by the science and advocacy sectors — about Mr. Perdue’s ethical lapses, coziness with big industry, and apparent interest in weakening evidence-based public protections — are bearing out. As he did as governor of Georgia for eight years, Secretary Perdue has made liberal use of industry contacts, former business associates, and Big Ag lobbyists as appointees to leadership position in government; skills, relevant experience and education, and ethics do not seem to be part of the vetting.

For example, to advise USDA on federal dietary guidelines, Mr. Perdue hired Kailee Tkacz, an ex-lobbyist for both corn refiners and snack (aka junk) food trade groups. He acquired an ethics waiver from the White House for the hire because she had lobbied Congress on related issues just three months earlier. UCS points out that Ms. Tkacz has no training in nutrition, science, or public health.

Additional ethics waivers, announced in March 2018, were issued by White House counsel Don McGahn for other trade group lobbyists to work for the USDA. One of those was for Maggie Lyons, former lobbyist for the National Grocers Association who was hired, as a senior advisor and chief of staff to the administrator of the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service, to advise Secretary Perdue and USDA officials on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program — policies on which she had lobbied just months earlier. Ms. Lyons, likewise, has no background in science or nutrition, but did study “corporate communications” in college.

Secretary Perdue also and infamously tried to appoint Sam Clovis, the Trump campaign national co-chair, and talk radio host, to be USDA’s undersecretary for research, education, and economics. Unencumbered by any of the scientific experience or training required by law for the position — never mind his predilection for racist and offensive diatribe, and for conspiracy theories — Mr. Clovis eventually, after vigorous public outcry, withdrew his name from nomination for the position. Yet, he is still at USDA as a senior advisor.

The Trump administration certainly set the stage for such recklessness and disregard for established norms and common sense. On Inauguration Day itself, the transition team had somehow vetted and sent to USDA headquarters 30+ new hires. Politico’s Jenny Hopkinson later reported, “Into USDA jobs, some of which paid nearly $80,000 a year, the Trump team had inserted a long-haul truck driver, a clerk at AT&T, a gas-company meter reader, a country-club cabana attendant, a Republican National Committee intern, and the owner of a scented-candle company, with skills like ‘pleasant demeanor’ listed on their résumés. ‘In many cases [the new appointees] demonstrated little to no experience with federal policy, let alone deep roots in agriculture.’ . . . What these people had in common, she pointed out, was loyalty to Donald Trump.”

Part of USDA’s responsibility is to use scientific evidence to maintain the safety of the food system, protect workers in the sector, improve children’s nutrition, and tackle food insecurity. In seeming contravention of those charges stand some of Mr. Perdue’s policy decisions. USDA attacked the science used by the World Health Organization in its guidelines on antibiotic overuse in livestock. In March 2018, it withdrew organic animal welfare regulations establishing standards and metrics for the health and welfare of organic livestock and poultry — another in a series of actions that compromise organic integrity in service to the needs of large organic producers. USDA also joined in with agribusiness interests, in the run-up to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt’s decision to reverse the Obama-era ban on the neurotoxic pesticide chlorpyrifos, to argue against the ban. The 2010 Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act established nutrition standards for school meals that helped arrest the spiking rate of childhood obesity; Mr. Perdue’s USDA rolled back those standards to allow fewer whole grains, more sodium, and milk with added sugar.

Secretary Perdue’s plans to reorganize USDA are further testament to his attitudes toward science, agribusiness, and the mission of the agency. In eliminating the Grain Inspection, Packers, and Stockyards Administration and withering some of its rules, he has made it easier for large meat processors to exploit small livestock and poultry farmers. Further, he supported the administration’s budget proposal for 2019, which would slice USDA funding by 25% and kneecap programs, such as the Economic Research Service and the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program, that use science to help farmers and rural communities. Mr. Perdue also supported the recent “tax bill,” in spite of the fact that its provisions are projected primarily to help the top 1% of farmers and decrease agricultural productivity.

Beyond Pesticides has identified the Trump administration’s pattern of sidelining science and prioritizing industrial interest in public policy and regulation across agencies; samples of that coverage: The Threat to Scientific Integrity at EPA, Trump Administration Bows to Chemical Industry, Increasing Pressure for Local Action, Assault on Science, and Where Has All the EPA Enforcement Gone? UCS also published a 2017 report on this pattern, Sidelining Science Since Day One.

The new UCS report, Betrayal at the USDA, sets out recommendations that include increased Congressional oversight of the USDA reorganization plan, hiring of a chief scientist with real scientific qualifications, creation of scientific evidence–based dietary guidelines, full funding for USDA’s research activities, and protection of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) policies based on evidence rather than ideology. Beyond Pesticides agrees, and continues to insist that science — and faithfulness to the public interest — have a critical and central role in informing public policy and governance, particularly in agencies such as USDA, EPA, HHS (Department of Health and Human Services), DOI (Department of the Interior), DOE (Department of Energy), FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), among others.

Members of the public can stay current on important, related issues with our Daily News Blog and Pesticides and You journal; mobilize to support organizations, such as Beyond Pesticides, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and many others, that advocate for science-sound solutions, ethics, and transparency in governance; and contact members of Congress to insist that the federal government work for the public interest.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: https://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/food-agriculture/unhealthy-food-policy/betrayal-usda-2018#.Ws4mddPwZ0s

(Beyond Pesticides, April 17, 2018) In a case that appalled the nation, the U.S. Justice Department finally last week secured an indictment against an applicator who illegally applied a fumigant at a U.S. Virgin Island resort, causing devastating and long-term health effects to a family on vacation. Terminex has already been fined and paid a multi-million dollar settlement with the poisoned family. Jose Rivera, 59, was indicted last Thursday by a federal grand jury for violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). According to the indictment, Mr. Rivera illegally applied fumigants containing methyl bromide in multiple residential locations in the U.S. Virgin Islands, including the condominium resort complex in St. John, where a family of four fell seriously ill in March 2015, announced Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey H. Wood of the Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert for the District of the Virgin Islands.  

The indictment alleges that Mr. Rivera knowingly applied restricted-use fumigants at the Sirenusa resort in St. John for the purpose of exterminating household pests on or about Oct. 20, 2014, and on or about March 18, 2015.  The defendant was also charged with applying the restricted-use pesticide in eight residential units in St. Croix and one additional unit in St. Thomas between April 2013 and February 2015.  

In 1984, EPA banned the indoor use of methyl bromide products. The few remaining uses are severely restricted.  Pesticides containing methyl bromide in the U.S. are restricted-use due to their acute toxicity, meaning that they must only be applied by a certified applicator. Health effects of acute exposure to methyl bromide are serious and include central nervous system and respiratory system damage. Pesticides can be very toxic and it is critically important that they be used only as approved by EPA.

Earlier this year, TERMINIX LP and TERMINIX, USVI were sentenced to pay a total of $9.2 million in criminal fines and restitution. The companies were also ordered to perform community service following an investigation and guilty pleas to their use and application of illegal fumigants in multiple residential locations in the Virgin Islands.

The case was investigated by EPA Criminal Investigation Division, working cooperatively with the Virgins Islands government and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Senior Litigation Counsel Howard P. Stewart of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim L. Chisholm for the District of the Virgin Islands are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Patricia Hick, EPA Region II Regional Criminal Enforcement Counsel.

the Department reminds the public that, “An indictment is merely a formal charging document and is not evidence of guilt. Every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty.”

For more information about EPA’s pesticide program and its requirements, visit www.epa.gov/pesticides/.

For more information on methyl bromide, visit www.epa.gov/region2/methyl-bromide.pdf.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice press release

(Beyond Pesticides, April 16, 2018) Ethics scandals pile up regarding Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s failure to do his job, leading to the inevitable conclusion that he must go.

Tell Congress and the President to Dump Pruitt.

On the ethics side, there are:

• A unique too-good-to-be-true housing deal at a rental owned by an industry lobbyist;
• High-priced first class airfare for Pruitt and his personal security detail;
• Questionable claims of a need for expensive personal security measures;
• Reassigning or demoting EPA employees who question him;
• Using “special hires” to bring on political appointees; and
• Failing to investigate civil rights complaints.

All of these ethics issues are in addition to Pruitt’s attacks on the environment he is charged with protecting:

• Reversing a ban on chlorpyrifos;
• Delaying rules designed to protect farmworker children;
• Eliminating from EPA advisory boards those scientists who have received EPA grants; and
• Attempting to slash EPA’s staff in half.

Tell Congress and the President to dump Pruitt. [Link to anchor in action page; in email link to action page.]

Letter to Congress (Reps and Senators) and the President:

Please tell President Trump to fire Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. His ethical choices reflect poorly on the administration and the country. They include:

• A unique too-good-to-be-true housing deal at a rental owned by an industry lobbyist;
• High-priced first class airfare for Pruitt and his personal security detail;
• Questionable claims of a need for expensive personal security measures;
• Reassigning or demoting EPA employees who question him;
• Using “special hires” to bring on political appointees; and
• Failing to investigate civil rights complaints.

Furthermore, he is failing to do his job, attacking rather than protecting the environment through actions like:

• Reversing a ban on chlorpyrifos;
• Delaying rules designed to protect farmworker children;
• Eliminating from EPA advisory boards those scientists who have received EPA grants; and
• Attempting to slash EPA’s staff in half.

Tell Congress and the President to Dump Pruitt.

(Beyond Pesticides, April 13, 2018) Hawaii is poised to become the first state in the nation to prohibit the use of pesticides containing the developmental neurotoxicant, chlorpyrifos. SB3095, passed unanimously by the State House of Representatives this week, prohibits the application of restricted use pesticides (RUPs) within 100 feet of schools when they are in session, and it requires commercial agricultural entities to regularly report their RUP use to the Department of Agriculture (DOA). In the absence of adequate federal procedures to protect communities from hazardous pesticide drift, this bill represents the culmination of efforts by the people of Hawaii to ban and restrict the most egregious pesticides and to increase the transparency regarding their use. As bill supporters rallied in the Capitol’s Rotunda this week, SB3095 was sent to the Senate. No date has yet been set for its consideration, but Senators who support the bill hope to secure the 13 votes needed to pass it and avoid further weakening of its provisions.

Beyond Pesticides has actively supported this and previous iterations of SB3095, arguing for the establishment of a much more protective one mile buffer zone between schools and RUP applications to safeguard school children where they learn. But, the final bill passed by the House, with its scant 100 foot buffer zone, represents a hard-fought compromise between community, environmental, and worker health advocates on one side, and chemical-intensive agriculture and chemical companies on the other. Additional key provisions in SB3095 include an increase in DOA funding for pesticide education and investigations, the deposition of money into a revolving fund from penalties and fines collected under the Hawaii Pesticide Law, and the creation of two new positions to aid in the law’s implementation. One undesirable provision remains in the bill, however – “DOA shall grant any person, upon request, a temporary permit allowing the use of pesticides containing chlorpyrifos through 12/31/2021.” This no-questions-asked, three-year, free-pass for chlorpyrifos users represents a bitter compromise that bill advocates had to swallow to ensure its passage. The provision does require public disclosure of the recipient of the permit allowing chlorpyrifos use.

As State House Representative Nadine Nakamura observed after the vote, “This bill attempts to find a middle ground to move forward.” Kaua’i community activist and environmental scientist, Fern Holland, views it as “making a step in the right direction toward providing tangible protections for public health and our precious environment.” She said that she would “like to see Hawaii be the first state in the nation to step forward and ban this chemical and make a real step forward in protecting our children.”

The ban on chlorpyrifos is a long time coming. Formulated by Dow Chemical Company and registered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1965, the chlorinated organophosphate insecticide was first developed as human nerve gas during World War II. Like so many other peacetime uses of war time chemicals chlorpyrifos was subsequently adapted as a broad-spectrum insecticide because of its effectiveness in killing insects on contact. The accelerated population growth and urbanization that characterized the US in the1950s and 60s facilitated the rapid expansion of chlorpyrifos, making it one of the most widely applied organophosphate insecticides for US agricultural, residential, and commercial use.

According to data compiled by EPA, corn is the single largest agricultural market for chlorpyrifos in terms of total pounds applied of the active ingredient. Farmers also apply it on feed crops, fruit and nut trees, and on brussel sprouts, cranberries, broccoli, cauliflower, and other row crops. Non-agricultural applications include golf courses, green houses, utility poles, fence posts, in roach and ant bait stations, and as a mosquito adulticide.

Research leading up to Hawaii’s pesticide bill has shown that the use of chlorpyrifos is accompanied by tremendous human health costs. Children are uniquely susceptible to the adverse effects of chemical exposures because they drink more liquids, breathe more air, and consume more food per pound of body weight than adults. Studies have shown that children’s developing organs create early windows of significant vulnerability during which exposure to pesticides can cause great damage. In recognition of the hazards posed to children in particular from chlorpyrifos exposure, in 2000 EPA removed all residential uses from the market. But, the agency’s actions fell short of issuing an outright ban, despite strong, scientific evidence of harm and ongoing public outcry. Under the direction of EPA’s current Administrator, Scott Pruitt, the agency has delayed further action until 2022, calling for more study instead. Pruitt made this decision against the advice of his agency’s own scientists who argued that there is no safe method of chlorpyrifos use.

According to professor emeritus of pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina, Pediatrician, and Beyond Pesticides Board President, J. Routt Reigart, MD, “There is absolutely no reason to delay action for at least four years, other than providing Dow Chemical with permission to grow its market.” Chlorpyrifos is a known cholinesterase inhibitor which binds irreversibly to the active site of an enzyme essential for normal nerve impulse transmission- acetylcholine esterase (AchE), inactivating the enzyme. “Studies document that exposure to low levels of chlorpyrifos during pregnancy can impair learning, change brain function, and alter thyroid levels of offspring into adulthood.” Columbia University researchers have found that chlorpyrifos in umbilical cord blood correlated to a decrease in psychomotor and mental development in three year old children. EPA scientists concur with this finding.  Virginia Rauh, Professor of Population and Family Health at the Columbia University Medical Center, has found that children exposed to high levels of chlorpyrifos experience mental development delays and attention deficit/hyperactivity problems at three years of age. Studies of children exposed to chlorpyrifos have consistently demonstrated reduced birth weights, slowed cognitive development, and other neurodevelopmental problems.

In EPA’s revised risk assessment released in November of 2016, the agency confirmed that there is no safe use of chlorpyrifos. It also found that ubiquitous exposures to the insecticide exceeded safe levels in drinking water, food, air, homes, schools, and in agricultural communities. The assessment stated that pesticide drift, even at three hundred feet from the field’s edge, remains unsafe.  Workers who mix and apply chlorpyrifos are exposed to unsafe levels even when wearing maximum protective gear and with emission controls in place.

Yet, even in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, such as the research examined in EPA’s risk assessment, federal policy makers have failed the public by not swiftly banning chlorpyrifos, nationally, according to Leonardo Trasande, MD, physician and associate professor at New York University School of Medicine.  In his article, “When enough data are not enough to enact policy: the failure to ban chlorpyrifos,” Dr. Trasande reviews the available, scientific evidence on the public health threats posed by chlorpyrifos and the federal government’s slow response to take action. He concludes by stating the obvious – that the benefits of banning chlorpyrifos far outweigh the costs. Dr. Trasande calls upon the scientific community to speak up about the implications of their research and the imperative for government regulatory action to be taken to protect public health. While Dr. Trasande concedes that there will always be debate about the exact course of action and speed by which it should occur, he is emphatic that “Taking chlorpyrifos off the market will preserve our children’s intellectual potential. The chemical and agricultural industries will survive as they have survived the loss of many chemicals.”

Banning chlorpyrifos and passing SB3095 will put Hawaii at the forefront of statewide efforts to curb the adverse effects of noxious pesticide use. Other states, including New Jersey and Maryland, failed to pass bills proposed in their state legislatures. U.S. Senators from seven states have also introduced the Protect Children, Farmers and Farmworkers from Nerve Agent Pesticides Act of 2017, which would outlaw chlorpyrifos and force EPA to review and consider banning other similar, highly toxic pesticides.

To express you concerns about the continued allowance of chlorpyrifos and other noxious pesticides, write or call your US Congressional Representative. Urge them to support the Protect Children, Farmers and Farmworkers from Nerve Agent Pesticides Act of 2017 to safeguard children and communities from the unnecessary exposure to this neurotoxin. You can learn more about the fate, effects, and impacts of pesticides by visiting Beyond Pesticides’ Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database. It catalogs over 400 references in the epidemiologic peer-reviewed literature that link pesticide exposure, including chlorpyrifos, to a range of public health diseases. Also, consult Beyond Pesticides’ factsheet Children and Pesticides Don’t Mix, which cites peer-reviewed scientific literature on the health effects of pesticides.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Sources:  Hawaii News Now

(Beyond Pesticides, April 12, 2018) The Justice Department will allow two notorious agrichemical corporations, Bayer and Monsanto, to merge, according to reports published earlier this week. Despite strong voices of opposition from grassroots advocates across the country, and investigations by state Attorneys General, the over $60 billion merger was approved after Bayer agreed to sell off select sectors to another competitor, BASF.  The merger will make Bayer the largest seed and pesticide company in the world. While lining the pockets of C-suite executives, farmers will be hurt by decreased competition and greater costs, which will ultimately affect consumer prices for food.

China, Brazil, Australia, and the European Union (EU) signed off on the deal prior to U.S. approval. As part of EU negotiations, Bayer agreed to divest $7 billion, selling off its soybean and cottonseed sectors, as well as its glufosinate herbicide division, which competes with Monsanto’s Roundup. Bayer also promised European regulators that it would not attempt to foist genetically engineered (GE) crops onto European consumers.  The U.S. Justice Department added additional requirements, noting that widespread use of GE crops in America meant there would be different considerations. According to reports, Bayer will need to sell off additional seed and seed treatment sectors and certain aspects of its digital field management business.

Although the Justice Department secured agreements on divestment, there were no deals made on how the new company will operate. In a number of sectors, including vegetable seeds, and GE row crops like alfalfa, canola, corn, soybean, and wheat, the new company, which many have dubbed “Baysanto,” will have an overwhelming majority of worldwide market share. Not only will this reduce the availability of traditional and non-GE seed varieties, it will permit the new company to increase costs to farmers, giving them few and likely no alternatives in many cases.

These problems are compounding themselves, as the Bayer-Monsanto merger is only the latest in a series of mega-mergers that have upended the agrichemical industry. Dow and DuPont merged in 2017, with plans to separate the new conglomerate into three different companies, one being a nearly $20 billion pure-play agriculture corporation that integrates the companies’ seed and pesticide sectors.  In 2016, the Chinese state-owned pesticide company ChemChina merged with Swiss chemical giant Syngenta, a deal valued at roughly $43 billion.

The “big six” often referenced by health and consumer advocates – Bayer, Monsanto, Dow, DuPont, Syngenta, and BASF – has now shrunk to four. According to a poll taken earlier this year, 93% of farmers are concerned about the Bayer-Monsanto merger, with specific issues related to the new company’s ability to control farmer data, push products on farmers, and increase chemical dependency on farms.

The contracts that chemical companies make with conventional farmers can trap them within the company’s intellectual property (IP) ecosystem. For instance, farmers that purchase GE seeds must also assure the company that they will only use the company’s specific pesticides developed to accompany the GE seeds. As documented extensively by Beyond Pesticides, this system creates pesticide dependency whereby farmers must continue to buy the company’s seeds, and spray the company’s chemicals in order to control rising rates of pest and weed infestation. Now, without competition from other IP ecosystems, these companies can increase costs without risk that a farmer will jump to a competitor.

According to the Wall Street Journal, finalizing the Bayer-Monsanto merger will still require the okay from Canada and Mexico.

In fighting back against the global consolidation of agricultural markets, we might not always be able to prevent purchasing a food product produced by one of the big four, but we can work to shift consumer preferences towards sustainably produced food. Whenever possible, choose foods that have the USDA organic symbol, which doesn’t permit farmers to use toxic pesticides and GE seeds.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Reuters

(Beyond Pesticides, April 11, 2018) The request by shellfish growers in Washington State to apply the neonicotinoid insecticide, imidacloprid, on oyster and clams beds to control native burrowing shrimp was denied by the Department of Ecology (Ecology) after it determined “environmental harm from this neonicotinoid pesticide would be too great.” Concerned resident and environmental advocates have been opposed to the proposed use citing harms to aquatic life including fish habitat, and long-term ecological damage.

Shellfish growers from Willapa-Grays Harbor Oyster Growers Association requested a permit from the state to use the imidacloprid on burrowing shrimp that the growers said impede traditional shellfish cultivation. They sought a state National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit to apply imidacloprid to 500 acres of shellfish beds within Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor, over a period of five years. The growers first applied for a permit in 2015 to treat 2,000 acres of tidelands, but after a strong public outcry, they withdrew the request. In 2016, they applied for a new permit to treat less acreage and Ecology published a draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) in 2017 on the potential impacts imidacloprid application would have to the bay. Now, Ecology, after thoroughly evaluating the request and public comments, including those submitted by Beyond Pesticides and its members, has determined that the environmental harm from this neonicotinoid pesticide would be too great, and is denying the request for a permit.

“We’ve been working with this community of growers for years to move away from chemical pesticides and find a safer alternative to control burrowing shrimp,” said Ecology Director Maia Bellon. “The science around imidacloprid is rapidly evolving and we can’t ignore it. New findings make it clear that this pesticide is simply too risky and harmful to be used in Washington’s waters and estuaries.”

According to Ecology, “The body of science is expanding because of national and international concerns surrounding the use of neonicotinoid pesticides and their environmental impacts. New research points to greater impacts in land and water ecosystems than previously known.” Reasons for the denial, documented in its formal report, include:

• Significant, unavoidable impacts to sediment quality and benthic invertebrates.
• Negative impacts to juvenile worms and crustaceans in areas treated with imidacloprid and nearby areas covered by incoming tides.
• Negative impacts to fish and birds caused by killing sources of food and disrupting the food web.
• Concern about non-lethal impacts to invertebrates in the water column and sediment.
• A risk of impacts from imidacloprid even at low concentrations.
• Increased uncertainty about long-term, non-lethal, and cumulative impacts.

According to the final decision, research and data reviewed by Ecology determined that the proposal to apply imidacloprid, “cannot meet the legal requirements of the Sediment Management Standards and Clean Water Act that protect sediment and water quality.” Ecology conservatively estimates for every one acre of tideland that is chemically treated, imidacloprid spreads out and impacts five acres. Even at low concentrations, it has significant impacts on the environment.

Neonicotinoids, like imidacloprid, are known for their action on non-target terrestrial insects, like the honey bee, but their neurotoxic activity in aquatic invertebrates like aquatic insects, crustaceans and worms also occurs when these chemicals get into waterways where these organisms reside. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent aquatic assessment of imidacloprid identified aquatic insects as the most vulnerable to imidacloprid exposures, and specifically found that foliar spray and a combination of other application methods, including on-the-ground applications, have “the greatest potential risks for aquatic invertebrates. . .”  EPA also acknowledges that “the potential exists for indirect risks to fish and aquatic-phase amphibians through reduction in their invertebrate prey-base.”

Studies investigating the impacts of neonicotinoids on aquatic organisms find that these pesticides can have devastating impacts on aquatic communities and on the higher trophic organisms that depend on these communities. Even at low, sublethal levels imidacloprid has the ability to reduce survival and growth in these organisms and can affect molting and larval development. The effects of imidacloprid on certain aquatic organisms are wide-ranging and include significant reduction in abundance, significant reduction in survival, reduced feeding, and behavioral changes. For more read Beyond Pesticides’ Poisoned Waterways.

Also important to note is that the burrowing shrimp have an important function in the ecosystem of Willapa Bay and Grays Harbor. According to an analysis conducted by the Xerces Society, “The benefits from these species are likely to include ecosystem services such as substrate bioturbation, improving water quality and nutrient availability.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) finds that the native burrowing shrimp play an important role in the natural ecosystem, and voiced concern for the green sturgeon – a “species of concern” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), which could potentially be impacted via reduced food sources in its designated critical habitat. Other species, like migratory birds that depend on shoreline aquatic invertebrates, can also be significantly affected. These trophic impacts are also extended to other aquatic predators in the Bay. These disruptions can have long-term cascading effects on food webs and habitats in or near aquatic environments. These government assessments and independent studies underscore the risks posed to aquatic ecosystems, which warrant federal restrictions on the use of imidacloprid.

Ecology’s decision is subject to a public comment period before it is final. The public may submit comments on this decision through May 14, 2018.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Department of Ecology News Release

(Beyond Pesticides, April 10, 2018) Current strategies aimed at managing herbicide resistant weeds in agriculture are not effective and may exacerbate weed problems, according to research published earlier this year by scientists at University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom (UK). While the conventional wisdom in farming, promoted strongly by the chemical industry, is that resistance can be adequately managed by rotating the herbicides used, researchers did not find evidence to support this strategy. In an ode to Occam’s razor, a philosophical theory that hypotheses with the fewest assumptions may be the correct one, researchers found the best method to reduce weed resistance to herbicides was to reduce the overall use of herbicides.

Sheffield scientists focused their research on the occurrence of a common weed in the UK called black-grass. This weed was found to occur on 88% of the farmland tested in the study, and has recently been spreading into new areas it had never before colonized. Rob Freckleton, PhD, a population biologist and co-author of the study indicated to Science Daily, “The driver for this spread is evolved herbicide resistance: we found that weeds in fields with higher densities are more resistant to herbicides.”

Thus, the more abundant black-grass was found to be, the more researchers found resistant versions of the plant. The study investigated a range of factors that may be related to herbicide resistance, including management techniques that switch up herbicides used, or plant different crops. However, resistance was linked solely with how often and how much herbicide was used on a particular farm. Dr. Freckleton explains to Science Daily, “The results were simple: farms that used a greater volume of herbicide had more resistance. Beyond this we found little evidence for a role of any other management techniques: neither the diversity of chemicals used — for example whether farmers used a variety of herbicides or just one — or diversity of cropping mattered, despite both being advocated as methods to reduce the evolution of resistance.”

Scientists are confident in this determination because, over the course of the study, weed abundance did not change, despite farmers changing cultural practices. “Once resistance has evolved it does not seem to go away,” Dr. Freckleton said. “Two years later, fields with high densities still had high densities, despite farmers employing a suite of different management techniques.” As far as switching to another herbicide, researchers found that, once black-grass evolved resistance to one herbicide, it became much more likely to develop resistance to other herbicides.

The data implies that these ineffective measures may in fact be hurting farmer’s wallets. “We estimate that the economic costs of this are very high: the costs of weed management have doubled as a consequence of evolved resistance,” Dr. Freckleton notes.

Although weeds on farms using genetic engineering (GE) were not investigated as a result of a UK ban on growing such crops, the study is instructive for herbicide use on these farms in the U.S. Study after study has found that GE crops lead to increased use of toxic herbicides in attempts to control resistant weeds. And now, data finds the industry’s “solution” – namely, adding new, different herbicides to the mix, such as 2,4-D and dicamba, is not only an ineffective method that further endangers public health and neighboring cropland, it is likely going to cost farmers even more as it does nothing to address the fundamental issue causing resistance.

The good news is that the answer to this problem is as simple as understanding it: to limit herbicide resistance, reduce herbicide use. As Dr. Freckleton explains, “This is evolved resistance: when we manage natural systems in a selective manner, evolution is inevitable.” To manage resistance for the long term, organic agriculture has shown a viable path forward. Organic production reserves even the use of least-toxic herbicides to only when they are truly necessary, as a focus is placed on working with, rather than controlling natural systems.

For more information on herbicide resistance, see Beyond Pesticides’ Genetic Engineering program page.

All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of Beyond Pesticides.

Source: Science Daily, Nature Ecology and Evolution

(Beyond Pesticides, April 9, 2018) A new international study finds that the unsustainable exploitation of natural resources worldwide has reached critical proportions, causing biodiversity loss and land degradation that threaten the food and water security of an estimated 3.2 billion people. Congress must act for the U.S. to become a signatory to the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity, joining the global community in working to develop and implement solutions to the biodiversity crisis.

Urge your U.S. Representatives and Senators to call for a vote in Congress to support the U.S. becoming a signatory to the UN Convention on Biodiversity.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report unearths the crisis faced by two-fifths of the world’s population due to the worsening of land degradation, declining species biodiversity, and the intensification of climate change. Though the report presents a bleak picture of how humans have substantially degraded the natural resources essential to survival, it holds up indigenous knowledge and land-use practices as potential models for how to use natural resources for human benefit, while still protecting biodiversity. However, the cultures that possess this knowledge are also in jeopardy. More than 60 percent of indigenous languages and cultures in the Americas are declining or dying.

In addition to detailing the root causes of biodiversity losses and ecosystem damages, the report also examines the social, cultural, political, and economic influences that can affect long-lasting change. Central to the extensively peer-reviewed report is a strong and often-repeated message that the window of opportunity for reversing land degradation and its impacts is closing. The report’s Chair, Robert Watson, PhD, warns that, “We must act to halt and reverse the unsustainable use of nature –or risk not only the future we want, but even the lives we currently lead.”

Biodiversity has been most strongly affected by agriculture, followed by forestry, infrastructure development, urban encroachment, and climate change. The resultant reduction and elimination in the suitability of habitats is the major cause of biodiversity losses. IPBES identified a nearly 40 percent decline in the average population size of wild terrestrial vertebrate species and an 81 percent decline in freshwater vertebrate species between 1970 and 2012. UN Administrator of the Development Program, Achim Steiner, argues that “Biodiversity and the ecosystem services it supports are not only the foundation for life on Earth, but critical to the livelihoods and well-being of people everywhere.”

Agriculture affects biodiversity through use of pesticides and fertilizers in chemical-intensive farming, and direct destruction of habitats in order to expand farmland. Concrete solutions offered in the report include: halting agriculture expansion into native habitats, improving soil health, conservation agriculture, shifts toward integrated crop, livestock, and forestry agriculture, more plant-based foods, and food waste reduction.

Chief among the cultural drivers of land degradation is the high-consumption lifestyles of people living in advanced industrialized countries, the growing consumption in emerging economies, and increasing population growth. All of these behaviors cause land degradation through natural resource and mineral extraction and by fueling agricultural and urban sprawl. Such activities have left less than 25% of the Earth’s surface free from degradation, mostly in deserts, tundra, mountains, and polar -regions.

Authors of the IPBES report have dubbed its findings “a wake-up call for all of us.” It will also undoubtedly serve that function for the 198 parties to the Convention on Biodiversity who will be attending the upcoming meeting in Egypt in November of this year. Aided by conclusions drawn from the report, agreements will be made on targets for improving biodiversity and strengthening compliance with the treaty. Although the U.S. is a party to the convention, it is not a signatory, which means that it is not legally bound by treaty provisions.

Urge your U.S. Representatives and Senators to call for a vote in Congress to support the U.S. becoming a signatory to the UN Convention on Biodiversity.

(Beyond Pesticides, April 6, 2018) Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is getting plenty of attention for what the public and some members of Congress see as his spendthrift and potentially corrupt behaviors since taking office in early 2017. Pundits and prognosticators who focus on the Washington, DC scene are speculating that this attention is not welcome by the White House, and wonder if Mr. Pruitt will soon be on the “wrong end of a Trump tweet.” 

This may be refreshing news to environmental advocates, scientists, and public health experts, who have objected to the “changes” he’s brought to the agency, which frequently favor industry interests over science-based protection of the environment and public health. EPA’s moves to reduce enforcement, roll back protective regulations, and install industry-friendly personnel have been covered extensively by Beyond Pesticides; examples include: “Where Has All the EPA Enforcement Gone,” “The Threat to Scientific Integrity at EPA,” and regular posts in its Daily News Blog.

Administrator Pruitt calls his approach to EPA’s function “Back to Basics,” which he says includes a refocus on EPA’s “intended mission, a return of power to the states, and creation of an environment where jobs can grow.” The agency website sets out the “three Es” of the Back-to-Basics agenda: Environment: protecting the environment; Economy: sensible regulations that allow economic growth; and Engagement: engaging with state and local partners. The new agenda was announced in April 2017 at a coal mine in Sycamore, Pennsylvania — a telling gesture that betrays Pruitt’s actual allegiances: to the extractive, chemical, industrial, and transportation interests that are the chief sources of environmental degradation in the U.S.

Of course, neither the intent of its creators nor the mission of EPA identifies job creation and economic growth as aspects of the agency’s purview or goals. The agency’s mission reads: The United States Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States which was created for the purpose of protecting human health and the environment by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress.” The back-to-basics language that the Pruitt EPA has invented is a sleight of speech intended to skew public perception of what the EPA does, and thereby, create “cover” for its deconstruction of environmental protections.

One might presume that Mr. Pruitt, in promoting this agenda for the EPA, would also be promoting a culture of responsible spending by the agency. On the contrary, his spending has been far beyond basic, and has included routine travel by first-class airline flights or military jets and staying at high-end hotels. In June 2017, he and his aides racked up $90,000 in travel costs — which amount doesn’t include the cost of his 24/7 security detail. Mother Jones highlighted an example: “On Monday, June 5, accompanied by his personal security detail, Pruitt . . . raced to New York on a military jet, at a cost of $36,068.50, to catch a plane to Rome.”

Mr. Pruitt has also spent lavishly on contending with what he and his officials call “security threats.” To be sure, he has received four-to-five times as many threats as his predecessor, though the credibility of such threats is not clear — nor is it clear how flying first class keeps him any safer than flying coach. Politico notes that some of the threats have comprised only “threatening tweets and a menacing postcard.”

EPA initially claimed that Mr. Pruitt has a “blanket waiver” to upgrade from coach airline travel because of those “security threats.” That claim was investigated and discovered to be false; the General Services Administration bans “blanket waivers,” and mandates that government employees must request a waiver for each trip. After Politico publicly pointed this out, EPA walked back its claim.

Administrator Pruitt’s extreme concern about security has moved some observers to suggest a level of paranoia that is costing taxpayers a bundle. The spending on accommodations to perceived security threats includes $43,000 on installation of a soundproof phone booth in his office, and $9,000 to sweep his office for listening devices, and install biometric locks and “access control card readers.” His own employees are required to have an escort to come into his office, and are sometimes prohibited from taking notes at meetings. Pruitt’s team also guards his schedule carefully; some believe this is an effort to be unpredictable and so, less easily targeted. But it also makes it difficult for the Fourth Estate to cover the Administrator’s activities. Kate Yoder, writing for Grist, says, “The secretive schedule is a departure from the norm and shields him from some level of scrutiny. It’s unclear if Pruitt is more concerned about outside threats or keeping journalists and the public in the dark about what he’s up to.”

Mr. Pruitt has also insisted on an unprecedented, round-the-clock security detail to accompany him when he travels — including on vacation trips to the Rose Bowl and Disneyland, and on frequent trips back home to Oklahoma. Costs for this security detail — which always flies first class — have not been released, but CNN has indicated that they come in at approximately $2 million per year, not including travel, training, and equipment.

In early April, Rep. Elijah Cummings and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi called for hearings on whether the Trump administration has “adequate controls” to protect taxpayer money in light of recent “extravagant air travel” by cabinet members, calling out in particular Pruitt’s flight to Italy for a summit in 2017 that racked up $120,249, and naming it “questionable and expensive travel at the taxpayer expense.”

That Administrator Scott Pruitt came to his EPA position with a decidedly industry-friendly bent is old news. That history, which includes 14 lawsuits against the agency — 13 of which also included players from EPA-regulated industries — continues to be relevant context in which to consider the activity of Mr. Pruitt and his EPA. In what may be an example of a quid pro quo arrangement tied to a fossil fuel industry lobbyist, in the last week of March ABC News reported that Pruitt had secured an unusually advantageous deal for his living arrangement — in a high-price Capitol Hill neighborhood — during his first six months in DC.

The rental property belongs in part (via an LLC) to the wife of a lobbyist, J. Steven Hart, who not only has contributed to Mr. Pruitt’s political campaigns, but also, represents a liquefied natural gas company. Administrator Pruitt secured a deal to pay $50 a night for a single bedroom in a condo, and only for the nights he actually used it, expending a total of $6,100 over the six months. Mr. Pruitt’s daughter stayed in a second bedroom while interning at the White House and frequently used the condo kitchen, though that was not part of the deal. Bloomberg News reported that initially, Mr. Pruitt could not produce any documentation demonstrating a lease arrangement or any rental payments; the landlord ultimately provided EPA officials with such evidence.

EPA officials defended the arrangement; EPA official Justina Fugh indicated that Mr. Pruitt had “paid a fair price for what amounts to just a room. . . . So I don’t even think that the fact the house is owned by a person whose job is to be a lobbyist causes us concern.” Critics think otherwise: Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, said in a news release, “This appears to be a gift from a lobbyist to the EPA administrator. . . . Scott Pruitt seems to be renting at well below market value — from a family member of a lobbyist who has business before the EPA.” Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said, “At the very least, it doesn’t look good for the administrator of EPA to have rented an apartment from the wife of an energy industry lobbyist who represents companies regulated by EPA.”

The editorial board of The Washington Post wrote, on April 2, that Ms. Fugh “described this as ‘a routine business transaction.’ Yet anyone who has suffered through finding a rental apartment in central Washington knows that reserving a bedroom for yourself at that price, paid for only sporadically and when you are in residence, without a year-long commitment, with a second bedroom available for family, is highly improbable if not impossible — without connections. . . . If Mr. Pruitt had paid fair rent on realistic terms, the connection would be merely concerning. In light of the cushy deal the administrator got, the arrangement is pure swamp.” The New York Times’s Paul Krugman went further in a March 30 Tweet, calling the deal a “de facto bribe.”

Media have covered this story as a potential conflict of interest scandal, noting that the arrangement creates at least the appearance of impropriety, if it does not constitute actual impropriety. Congressional Representative Carlos Curbelo has called Mr. Pruitt’s conduct “an embarrassment.” He and another Florida Republican, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, have called for his resignation. Whether Administrator Pruitt’s spending or his special deal on housing would on their own merits win the attention of the White House is debatable. But the growing attention to Mr. Pruitt’s behavior is not likely welcome by the administration, which has in the past not appreciated being embarrassed by certain behaviors of its Cabinet members or appointees.

Source: https://grist.org/briefly/scott-pruitt-might-be-on-the-wrong-end-of-a-trump-tweet-soon-heres-why