04
Jul
(Beyond Pesticides, July 3-4, 2025) On this Independence Day, Beyond Pesticides calls for holistic solutions that, as articulated in the Declaration of Independence, move the nation to ensure “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The founders of the United States were aware of the existential threat of corruption to democratic institutions. Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, warned in Federalist No. 68 of The Federalist Papers that the presidency could be overtaken by a despotic figure without adequate safeguards. James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, in Federalist No. 10 speaks to the danger that factions—defined as a group of people or entities “… who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community”—impose on the general public, if not checked by safeguards in the country’s political system. The foundational principles in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution have been challenged under the current administration and in the U.S. Congress. Communities are facing a fourfold attack on these principles and the centuries-old promise of the nation: […]
Posted in Bayer, Biodiversity, Cancer, Chemical Mixtures, Children, Climate Change, Congress, Corporations, Disease/Health Effects, Environmental Justice, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Failure to Warn, Health care, Indigenous People, Label Claims, Monsanto, National Politics, Native Americans, Parks for a Sustainable Future, Pesticide Regulation, Preemption, State/Local, Take Action, Uncategorized, US Department of Agriculture (USDA) | No Comments »
17
Jun
(Beyond Pesticides, June 17, 2025) Funding cuts in the current budget bill include drastic cuts in research essential to protect farmers, farmworkers, and their families. There are many federal agencies funding research, but among the most important of those funding research affecting farmers, farmworkers, and their families are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).  >> Tell Congress to restore funding that protects the health of farmers, farmworkers, and their families. EPA funding for the Bioecological Center for Research on Children’s Health (BeRCH) project was cut after almost two years. This project had the potential to address farmworker children’s health. Farmworker children can face many challenges–including poverty, language barriers, inadequate housing, discrimination, fear of family separation, exposure to agricultural chemicals, food insecurity, and migration. BeRCH was designed to identify, understand, and address the cumulative impacts on the health, development, and growth of farmworker children. The project goals were to examine farmworker children’s exposures to environmental toxins (pesticides, heavy metals, particulate matter) and non-chemical psychosocial stressors (poverty, food insecurity, trauma, discrimination, etc). Working in collaboration with the Florida State University (FSU) health clinic in Immokalee, the project would have examined threats, implemented strategies to improve health outcomes for farmworker children, and collaboratively established […]
Posted in Agriculture, Children, Congress, Disease/Health Effects, Environmental Justice, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Farmworkers, Florida, Occupational Health, Pesticide Drift, State/Local, Take Action, Uncategorized, Women's Health | 2 Comments »
