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A Year in Review—2024

We wish you a healthy and happy holiday season! The health and environmental challenges that we face as families and communities across the nation and worldwide require us to stay engaged.

The stark reality of the challenges ahead energizes us at Beyond Pesticides to strengthen our program—now, more than ever! And, we trust that you, like us, want to forge a path forward toward a livable future that we can share, together.

We look forward to working with you in the new year to meet the severe environmental and public health challenges with truly organic solutions!

While the threats of health, biodiversity, and climate crises grow exponentially, the solutions we have advocated for decades are now within reach. We know how to produce food and manage land without petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers, as organic food is widely available. Beautiful parks, playing fields, and schoolyards do not require toxic chemical use. At the same time, the regulatory system underperforms, as existential health and environmental problems escalate. And, we know that individual steps that we take to stay healthy, as important as they are, cannot protect us and the natural world, on which we depend, from involuntary petrochemical exposure through ongoing contamination of land, air, and water. The science is telling us that we can no longer tinker with chemical reduction strategies that fall short of protecting our health, biodiversity, and climate.

With your support of Beyond Pesticides, our goal is to end the use of petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers as we advance the adoption of organic practices and policies that respect life. Our accomplishments are your victories. We are seeing the outcomes in communities across the country—the adoption of organic land management policies and practices that eliminate toxic pesticides, protect children, pets, and families, and protect the local ecology.

Click here to support our work as we take it to the next level in 2025!

With a 44-year+ track record of successfully advancing systemic change, we know the solutions are within our grasp. We are honored to work collaboratively to make this happen . . . now and for future generations.

Here are some highlights of how our supporters and partners have helped us in 2024 to advance Beyond Pesticides' mission to end petrochemical and fertilizer use:



Meeting the Challenges

 



Elevating Science



Campaigns and Fundraisers

 



Community Action



Elevating Our Voice

 

 



   




         

 

New Year New Future

MEETING THE CHALLENGES AHEAD

Our Vision. Beyond Pesticides shares the vision of people and communities in seeking to ensure a future that protects health and sustains life. We are facing existential crises—the climate crisis, biodiversity collapse, and severe public health threats—from cancer to neurological, reproductive, and endocrine system effects, including brain and behavioral impacts. To reverse these threats, we advance model organic solutions that eliminate billions of pounds of fossil fuel-based pesticides and synthetic fertilizers and nurture biological systems that take dangerous pollutants out of our environment.

Our program bridges policy and practice—reframing strategies that go after an endless list of toxic chemicals—and advancing a holistic approach that recognizes complex biological communities, the importance of soil microbiota, trophic effects, and ecosystem services in the context of broader human health and environmental protection. We adopt this framework as we work at the local, state, and federal levels in advancing policy reform. It is imperative that national attention is focused on meaningful systemic change, which addresses disproportionate risk to people of color communities and workers, from landscapers to farmworkers.

Meeting the Challenges with a Transformative Strategy

Our efforts focus on shifting communities’ land and building management approach to address critical health and environmental issues. To achieve this goal, we carry out activities that advance a holistic awareness of the complex adverse effects and unknowns associated with pesticide-dependent management practices and policies. On a daily basis, we bring attention to and broader understanding of the actual hands-on practices that are protective of health and in sync with nature.

The Path Moving Forward: Organic. Beyond Pesticides has taken a holistic approach to advancing sustainable, organic practices and policies to solve the pesticide poisoning and contamination problem and the range of existential adverse effects. This framework provides the foundation for ending pesticide dependency in all aspects of use, agricultural and nonagricultural. Our implementation of organic land management is a partnership with local community groups and governments.

Taking a Stand

Beyond Pesticides empowers local science-based advocacy with practical hands-on support to drive the changes critical to a livable future—scientific facts coupled with action advance the adoption of solutions within our reach.

CAMPAIGNS AND FUNDRAISERS

We thank all our donors and supporters for your yearly gift contributions. Without your engagement and incredible generosity, it would not be possible to lead the transition to a world free of toxic pesticides.

Beyond Pesticides is charting a path forward to stop the use of petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers, linking across a broad spectrum of advocates, as we advance a solution with the adoption of organic practices. We are working for holistic change in food production and land management—from farms to homes, gardens, parks, playing fields, and schools. We are building on a foundation for this change that we helped to create in the 1990s with a legal definition of organic in law and a certification and enforcement structure, and then helped to grow the organic sector to $70 billion. And now, we are working for the universal adoption of organic practices in communities and agriculture. Our program envisions and implements at the community and farm level an investment in organic land management as an essential need for the common good. We can do this together, knowing that individuals and small groups have tremendous power to effect change, starting close to home.

Members and Donors. It's a fact. Your support makes our work possible. We provide up-to-date information about the health and environmental hazards of pesticides, pesticide regulation and policy, holistic non-toxic management systems, and cutting-edge science—free of charge to the public. This program would not be possible without the generosity of people like you. Your donation provides us with the resources to continue our essential work to protect people and the planet!

Please make a year-end gift today!

Natural Grocers Partnership.
Natural Grocers, which operates in over 168 stores in 21 western, southwestern, and Midwest states, collaborates with Beyond Pesticides in supporting our Parks for a Sustainable Future program. As leaders in the organic movement, Natural Grocers held an April 2024 campaign for the organization, coinciding with the company’s in-store and online Ladybug Love organic pledge. Natural Grocers sponsors organic land management model sites in 21 western/midwestern states situated in their store market areas. Natural Grocers staff were active with our meetings with the Parks and Recreation Department in Oregon and Colorado, along with the Colorado advocacy group People & Pollinator Pathway Network (PPAN).

Beyond Pesticides and Natural Grocers welcomed the following cities into the Parks for a Sustainable Future program in 2024: Golden, Lakewood, and Colorado Springs, Colorado; Kansas City, Missouri; and, Summerlin, Nevada (a 22,500-acre residential community with 250 parks in Las Vegas).

We continued our ongoing programs with: Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA); Springfield/Willamalane, OR; Austin, TX; Denton, TX and graduated from Longmont, CO. More communities are joining as community advocates join with us to set up organic park programs in their towns. With Natural Grocers’ support, we are able to underwrite the cost of organic management plan development, and horticultural consultation.

Stonyfield Organic. Stonyfield collaborates with Beyond Pesticides under their StonyFIELDS project, which is funding organic demonstration sites in the New York City Parks Department, with pilot programs in Brooklyn, Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island, and Queens.

Marketing Campaigns. For the past two quarters, Beyond Pesticides has collaborated with a coalition of organizations, organized by Friends of the Earth, on a series of market-based campaigns and outreach in the pursuit of a transition away from the use of petrochemical pesticides, within the supply chains, in production, and on the shelves!

In June, ahead of the AGM meeting for Target, Beyond Pesticides contributed to and signed a letter to the CEO Brian Cornell, encouraging him to take clear, measurable action on pollinator toxic pesticides in its supply chain. This led to a public action encouraging the public to send a version of the same letter—the Action resulted in 1,995 submissions! Action: Target CEO— Protect pollinators! Take action on pollinator-toxic pesticides in the supply chain.

In September and October, Beyond Pesticides strongly contributed edits to a letter urging ConAgra to protect the health of pollinators, people, and the planet by phasing out the use of neonicotinoid seeds in its popcorn supply chain. The result of this ongoing collaboration was the introduction and inclusion of holistic, transformational copy that, instead of relying on a reductionist approach, called for time-bound, measurable commitments that highlighted organic practices and products as a viable solution. 

ELEVATING SCIENCE THAT CALLS FOR URGENT NEED TO ACT

From a public health and environmental protection perspective, these are challenging times. We are inspired by the level of effective science-based advocacy critical to move the country forward. Beyond Pesticides believes in empowering advocates and decision-makers and provides up-to-date information on the independent, peer-reviewed scientific literature.

Beyond Pesticides tracks and maintains multiple databases, including PIDD, the Gateway, ManageSafe, Daily News Blog, and more, showcasing the science and policy around pesticides to provide decision-makers and advocates with the scientific and practical justification for transitioning to organic.

We start with the science.

With science made accessible to nonscientists, we empower people to advocate effectively with decision makers, elected officials, and all those responsible for directing or managing the choice of practices and products. The scientific literature covered in our Daily News and our databases on pesticide-induced diseases—including endocrine disruptors causing cancer and a host of diseases— identify the health threats associated with the daily pesticide assault through air, land, food, and water. 

Throughout the year, we provided critical information via the information services program, including:

Daily News. On a daily basis, five days a week, we have produced analytical articles that translate complex scientific findings, judicial findings, regulatory decisions, and legislative action. Published on our website, and focusing on the compelling scientific justification for eliminating pesticides, our program staff integrates their analysis into the support that is provided to communities, decision-makers in communities, states, and the U.S. Congress.  

Top Daily News of 2024 

Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database (PIDD). The scientific findings documented in Daily News are captured in our PIDD database. Over the year, we continued to update PIDD, which includes 1,815 studies, up from 1,402, with pesticide exposure links to cancer, brain and nervous system disorders, and learning/developmental disorders logging the most entries. We also added dozens of studies documenting pesticides’ adverse impacts on bees, pollinators, and ecosystems.

Gateway on Pesticide Hazards and Safe Pest Management. The Gateway was expanded to nearly 400 pesticide folders containing information about specific pesticide environmental and health effects, regulatory action, and uses. The Gateway provides valuable information about pesticides that anyone can access and is intended to help inform local community discussion on the hazards of pesticides used, while communities can access our ManageSafe database on alternative practices and products compatible with organic standards.

What the Science shows on Biodiversity. The same is true for biodiversity collapse, with the facts on the deadly effects of pesticides up and down the food web identifying crucial threats to air, land, and the environment. The decline of bees and pollinators sends a clear message that systemic change is urgently needed. We track individual chemicals as the poster children for the deficiency in current regulatory analyses of chemicals and wildlife protection. The database What the Science shows on Biodiversity features over 470 studies that identify adverse effects on bees and pollinators from pesticides. The information provided also promotes biodiversity, organic practices, and local policies.

Pesticides and You. Our journal provides a compendium of scientific research as a breathtaking warning from the science community that our laws are not adequately protective and the shift to organic is urgently needed. Our recent issue, entitled Meeting Existential Challenges: Empowering Action for Change with Science (2024), tracks and reports the latest research, organized into five sections that define the problem and solution, substantively, to the existential threats related to human health threats, biodiversity, climate, and related policies and actions. They include: Toxicology and Human Health Threats; Disproportionate Harm; Threatened Biodiversity and Ecosystems; Pest Resistance and Failed Efficacy; and, Organic Transition and Nontoxic Practices.

Additional Resources. The staff continue to expand and update resources on the website, including a complete overhaul of the Pollinator Week page, with daily resources, actions, and featured art from the public highlighted on our social media and newsletter platforms. Features included clips of David Goulson’s presentation during the 2023 National Forum, updates to last year’s Pollinator Week video, a “What can we do?” daily feature, and updates to a “buzz-worthy” poll! Social media included an Instagram story for the first time. 

To increase access on social media, especially link and resource engagement on Instagram, as well as expand the organization’s ability to feature resources from the website across generations, a LinkTree page has been established for Beyond Pesticides. Featured resources include links for the 2024 National Forum Series, social media accounts, webpage resources [Parks for a Sustainable Future, the Daily News, Action of the Week sign-up, the Art Page, our Resources, Keeping Organic Strong], press releases, and the Membership Drive.

Choose a Pest

ManageSafe™. Beyond Pesticides offers hands-on information through ManageSafe™. Our database of practical solutions to pest issues is a central clearinghouse of information on eliminating hazardous pesticides in land and building management.

Pesticide Free Zone Signs and Doorhangers

Our neighbor-to-neighbor program distributed over 183 Pesticide-Free Zone signs (ladybug, bee, and organic landscape) in 28 states, the District of Columbia, and four Canadian provinces, 2025 doorknob hangers on safe lawns and mosquito management in 20 states, including the District of Columbia.

TAKING ACTION IN COMMUNITIES

Beyond Pesticides is working with local communities to support local land management and ordinances across the country that are just as much about preventing hazards and filling an increasing gap in protection from regulators—as they are about recognizing the viability of sound land management practices. These practices do not use toxic chemicals, resulting in a healthier, more resilient plant life that stands up to stress and is less reliant on limited water resources.

Creating Models for What Meaningful Change Looks Like

Beyond Pesticides is well-positioned to effect changes in communities that serve as a model for other communities. We continue to develop the informational tools that support change agents, whether they are advocates or elected officials. We provide technical skills to land managers, ensuring the effective implementation of policies and plans for sustainable and organic land management. Our approach to the hands-on work to put in place organic land management programs recognizes the importance of soil biology in cycling nutrients naturally to feed plants is often new to land managers who have not evaluated and nurtured the web of microorganisms living in the soil.

This attention to the soil systems has been foundational to the success of organic agriculture nationwide. Critics, who often have a vested economic interest or history in pesticide use and proclaim that organic does not work, are, in effect, challenging the underlying principles of soil management that have enabled the exponential growth of the organic agricultural sector—now the fastest-growing part of the agricultural economy.

Community Projects—Parks for a Sustainable Future

Beyond Pesticides works with communities to transition their land to organic practices, having worked with over 60 communities and continuing to facilitate the transition in over 30 communities. This year, we added seven new communities in six states and have 19 active Parks programs in 12 states underway. As we forge ahead, Beyond Pesticides, with local partners and park departments, is making local parks, playing fields, and schoolyards safer for kids (and pets) through organic land management practices.

Keeping Organic Strong—Raising Voices for Strong Organic Standards 

Beyond Pesticides’ Keeping Organic Strong campaign is critical to organic integrity and public trust in organic as a solution-based strategy to address the existential health, biodiversity, and climate crises (please see the most recent organic actions: Keep Organic Strong Through Continuous Improvement, AND Last Chance This Fall To Tell the NOSB To Uphold Organic Integrity). Being the only standard and label that is governed by law with a certification and enforcement system, our engagement with the continuous improvement of organic is critical to its growth. While the issues are not simple, many people engage with us on the decisions before the National Organic Standards Board and the National Organic Program (NOP). For the Spring and Fall NOSB meetings in 2024, we submitted comments on every issue before the NOSB and generated over 3,000 public comments from members of the public.

The Organic Food and Production Act requires the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) to consider the cradle-to-grave effects of materials when protecting against adverse effects. As we advance organic as the solution to crosscutting issues of public health threats, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency, we are compelled to protect the integrity of organic standards and the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances. Thus, we continue to work closely with the NOSB and the National Organic Coalition to expand the reach of our positions.

We are increasing public engagement with the NOSB, organic standard setting, and advocacy to ensure a commitment to a rigorous review process, research, and continuous improvement— all essential to the growth of the organic market. While commenting on dozens of issues and allowed substances, we highlighted for the public six key issues of concern for organic integrity for the fall 2024 meeting [left].

Framing the Issues that Inform Action to Protect Health

For those not already practicing organic, we offer guidance on adopting the practices we advocate at the household level. 

Spring into Action/Settle into Summer/Flow into Fall. These pages represent a user-friendly informational resource highlighting tips on growing and maintaining your organic garden and landscape for the spring, summer, and fall. The webpage includes seasonal infographics that are easy to understand in one location. In addition to individual suggestions on transforming your garden and lawn into organic, a section is dedicated to the organic transformation of community spaces. We offer relevant resources, such as links to ManageSafe™, nontoxic pest management services, organic labeling information, organic lawn and landscape management products and herbicides, all pertaining to safer herbicide alternatives, services, and information.

How We Go Beyond the Silo to Connect Holistic Strategies Our work in Hawai’i—a model for multi-dimensional success!

Food in sync with nature. When COVID-19 struck Hawai’i, tourism stopped, and farmers lost their market to the hotels, Beyond Pesticides’ Hawai’i program stepped in to incubate the creation of a food hub, the Maui Hub. We thought we could help to nurture the people who live on the island with growing practices that would be a beacon for sustainability, charting a path that upholds the values of organic agriculture—in sync with Beyond Pesticides’ mission to eliminate petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers. That is what we did. The Hub is now an independent organization, paying out more than $1.8 million to local farmers and ranchers, almost all of whom are in organic production, with a staff budget of nearly $500,000 for jobs that nurture people and the earth. We set out to do what we envisioned—support local values and principles for growing food productively, while protecting our health, biodiversity, climate, and culture—the values that we incorporate into food sovereignty.

Building a sustainable future from the ashes. Then, a fire destroyed the West Maui community of Lahaina in August 2023, displacing native Hawai’ians and threatening to rip apart a traditional culture of protecting the land and biodiversity of Hawai’i. Just the previous year at our National Forum, indigenous farmer Kaipo Kekona delivered a keynote talk about his work to rehabilitate and return biodiversity to farmland depleted by decades of plantation agriculture on the Legacy Lands of Keli’i Kulani (foothills of the West Maui Mountains). We had previously worked to generate support to convert former plantation land to family farms growing organically. Seeing the importance of preserving the fire-ravaged land for generational Lahaina families, and protecting their culture of keiki ’o ka ’a-ina (child of the land), the Hub responded to the emergency with fresh local food, and Beyond Pesticides staff worked with community leaders to establish the Lahaina Community Land Trust, with a vision of equitable land and water management centered on traditional culture and food production. Now, the Land Trust stands on its own as a critical institution committed to a sustainable future for Lahaina and Hawai’i.

ELEVATING OUR VOICE THROUGH ACTION

When Beyond Pesticides was founded in 1981, we knew that we needed to forge a new path that rejected the reliance on petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers, while the laws protected the chemical industry more than people, workers, and the environment. With stronger government and chemical and allied industry alliances on the horizon, our community-based campaigns to transition to organic land management are critically important.

Environmental Injustice Is an Imminent Hazard. Not only are farmworkers and landscapers experiencing disproportionate risk as the first in line of exposure to pesticides, the manufacture of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides also creates a major environmental injustice for predominantly Black and Brown communities where production facilities are often located. Our campaigns to end the use of petrochemical pesticides, which are often endocrine disruptors, will have the greatest benefit in people of color communities where there are health inequities.

The Action of the Week (AOTW) provides our network with one concrete action that can be taken each week to have our collective voice heard to stop governmental actions that adversely affect public, worker, and environmental health, increase overall pesticide use, or perpetuate disproportionate harm, and undermine the advancement of organic, sustainable, and regenerative practices and policies. By targeting opportunities to integrate systemic change into the public policy debate at the local, state, national, and international level, we strive for a paradigm shift in addressing the underlying conditions associated with land management that contribute to the existential public health, biodiversity, or climate threats.

For example, when EPA banned the weed killer Dacthal or DCPA (dimethyl tetra-chloroterephthalate) this summer, it exercised its “imminent hazard” authority for the first time in 40 years and acted to protect farmworkers. EPA identified serious concerns about fetal hormone disruption and resulting “low birth weight and irreversible and life-long impacts to children [impaired brain development, decreased IQ, and impaired motor skills] exposed in-utero” and finds that there are no “practicable mitigation measures” to protect against these hazards. It set a precedent that we are using to advance our campaign to end pesticide use across all agency decisions: the "Dacthal Standard." This set the stage for pesticides as the "poster children" for failed regulation. See regulatory comments further down the page!

Sign up for our Weekly News Update and Action of the Week listserv here!

Top Actions of the Week and Related Daily News for 2024:

Networking For Change

The 41st Natural Pesticide Forum (2024): Imperatives for a Sustainable Future—Reversing the existential crises of pesticide-induced illness, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency. 

There is an increasing understanding that we must urgently face existential threats to health, biodiversity, and climate for which petrochemical-based pesticides and fertilizers, among other products, are major contributors—at the same time that solutions are currently available and operational. The threats are real and scientifically defined, and so are the solutions. The goal of the Forum is to contribute to the adoption of a holistic worldwide strategy to reverse the existential crises in the production of our food and the management of land and ecosystems.

The 41st National Forum, Imperatives for a Sustainable Future, offers us an opportunity to elevate our understanding of the petrochemical threats and the critical need to adopt practices and policies that eliminate one of the major sources of the problem, petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers. Among the significant changes that are taking place, but must occur at an accelerated pace, is the transition to organic land management, from agriculture, landscapes to playing fields, as part of a holistic strategy that recognizes the multidimensional nature of the problem and solution.

The two major imperatives for sustainability and a livable future are communities' and decision makers' understanding of and action on:

  • The threats to human health and ecosystems and the dire consequences of inaction or measures that fall far short of what is necessary; and
  • The path forward to eliminate reliance on petrochemical-based products, including the constellation of toxic materials associated with chemical-intensive practices—from food production to the management of homes, gardens, parks, and schools.

Session 1: October 30, 2024, 2 - 3 PM Eastern (EDT), including Q&A
Felix zu Löwenstein, PhD, Keynote
Roundtable: Transitioning to Universal Adoption of Organic Land Management, 3 - 4 PM Eastern (EDT)

Session 2: November 14, 2024, 1 - 2 PM PM Eastern (EST), including Q&A
Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH, Keynote
Roundtable: Empowering Advocacy for Change with Science—From Local, State, and National, to International, 2 – 3 PM Eastern (EST)

The Forum sessions can be viewed on our website! Keep an eye out for our 2025 conference!

PRESENTATIONS THAT INFORM ACTION

We speak to local communities and organizations across the country; for example:

Herbicide Drift Presentation. Beyond Pesticides participated as a speaker in a webinar entitled “Herbicide Drift Impacts on Plants and Wildlife: Understanding, Recognizing, and Reporting Drift Injury” alongside Prairie Rivers Network, Pesticide Action and Agroecology Network, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and American Bird Conservancy. The target of this presentation was to educate homeowners, environmental stewards, and communities across the nation on the existential threat of pesticide reliance for biodiversity and strategies for pesticide incidence reporting.

FELLOWSHIPS

Beyond Pesticides is committed to bringing youth into the movement to transition society to organic land management in advancing our goal to eliminate the use of petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers. The goal of the fellowship is twofold: (i) immerse students in the real challenges that people and the environment face through daily contact with our network and scientific information that informs the health and environmental problems associated with petrochemical pesticides and fertilizers and the organic solution, and (ii) develop and implement a research project that offers the fellow/researcher an opportunity to explore an area of interest that intersects with Beyond Pesticides’ mission and furthers public understanding of both challenges and solutions. Beyond Pesticides hosted one fellow this year, a student from Connecticut College. Fellowship projects included a "How-to" Guide for Student Sustainability Initiatives in Higher Education Institutions.

LOCAL AUTHORITY AND POLICY ADVOCACY 

Defending Democratic Process

Local Authority Failure to Warn/Immunity Bills

With the increasing interest in local community action to restrict pesticides and advance organic land management in the absence of adequate state and federal protection, we are leading a national effort to protect local authority. Legislation in Congress has been introduced and is under consideration in the Farm Bill to preempt local authority and the rights of people and communities to protect their health and the environment, including undermining the right for pesticide exposure victims to sue manufacturers for their “failure-to-warn” claims about the hazards of their products. With our advocacy, dozens of organizations and hundreds of community members representing farmers, farmworkers, lawyers, scientists, medical professionals, and advocates organized to prevent the passage of pesticide immunity bills in Iowa, Idaho, and Missouri.

Actions taken include:

Presentations to Elected Officials and Advocates. Beyond Pesticides presented to advocates and elected officials on statewide and national calls on the history of preemption and implications of pesticide immunity language in state legislatures and Farm Bill text moving forward into 2025.

Colorado Local Authority. Beyond Pesticides supported a Colorado-based coalition to advocate in support of a state bill that would reverse state preemption of local authority to restrict pesticides more stringently than the state. We developed language for special action and email outreach to support the bill.

Policy Advocacy—Broad Support Across the States

The range of our support is broad, from information on legislation on broad pesticide use notification in Michigan to a local pesticide ordinance in Falmouth, Maine. Our message seeks a better understanding of the need to protect those at greatest risk—children, pregnant individuals, those with preexisting health conditions, essential workers, and landscapers. We create a public record of scientific decisions undermined by poor public policy allowing hazardous pesticide use despite the availability of alternatives. In addition, we submitted comments on regulatory issues related to highly toxic pesticides, including rodenticides and herbicides.

Some of the policy issues include the following:

Massachusetts Biodiversity Conservation Goals. Beyond Pesticides submitted oral and written testimony on proposed Biodiversity Goals for the Commonwealth with state and national partners (NOFA-Mass and LEAD for Pollinators) to recommend (i) Ecologically-based mosquito management requirements, (ii) aggressive efforts and chemical restrictions to protect pollinators and stave off the “insect apocalypse” and wildlife decline, and (iii) organic land management practices for all Commonwealth lands in accordance with defined practices and allowed substances in conformance with the federal National Organic Program’s National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances.

The Fight Against Preemption: 2024 Farm Bill and More. Beyond Pesticides continues to respond to attacks on local and state pesticide authorities, as the organization has published multiple Daily News articles, a Dear Colleague letter, and actions related to preemption. We work with local pesticide groups to fight preemption in the Farm Bill and highlight local and state authority in the Agricultural Labeling Uniformity Act, the EATS Act, and the CROP Act to Congress.

Ban Paraquat Coalition. In partnership with the Ban Paraquat Coalition, we supported sign-on efforts for Dear Colleague Letters from U.S. Representative Greg Casar (DTX) and U.S. Senator Cory Booker’s Office on calling for EPA to ban the registration of paraquat with the success of convincing 46 U.S. House Representatives and six U.S. Senators to sign the letters.

Defining Regenerative Agriculture in California. Beyond Pesticides joined with several organic farmers, consumers, and certifiers to send a letter opposing the development of a regenerative definition in California state law since the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) was poised to define regenerative without establishing organic standards as a baseline.

Clean Water Act Reauthorization in Connecticut. We submitted public comments to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection on the reauthorization of general permit for point source discharge to waters of the state from pesticide applications, in which we urged the agency to incorporate in its regulations (i) the prohibition of general permits for point source discharges of pesticide-treated seeds and (ii) establish the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances as the sole criteria for the required integrated pest management plan in submitting general permit registration.

Strengthening Proposed Neonicotinoid Ban in Connecticut. Beyond Pesticides submitted public comments to the Connecticut Joint Environment Committee to replace, with amendments, the language of legislation introduced in the 2023 session, SB963, for SB190 on the topic of restricting neonicotinoid insecticides. We urged the Committee (i) add to the legislation restrictions on the use of seeds coated with neonicotinoid insecticides (neonics) and related compounds, and (ii) remove any exemption that allows neonicotinoid use on golf courses and as an outside perimeter application around structures.

Regulatory Comments and Oversight

  • Draft Biological Evaluation, Effects Determinations, and Mitigation Strategy for Federally
    Listed and Proposed Endangered and Threatened Species and Designated and Proposed
    Critical Habitats for 11 Rodenticides, EPA-HQ-OPP-2023-0567     (January 2024) These comments focus on the draft biological evaluation (BE) of 11 rodenticides including chlorophacinone, diphacinone and its sodium salt, warfarin and its sodium salt, brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difenacoum, difethialone, bromethalin, cholecalciferol, strychnine, and zinc phosphide. The flawed draft BE erroneously disregards potential aquatic exposure and fails to identify additional listed species [alligator snapping turtle, bull trout, Atlantic salmon, steelhead trout] that may be adversely affected by rodenticide exposure and is an unsatisfactory evaluation.

  • Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP); Near-Term Strategies for Implementation, EPA–HQ–OPP–2023–0474 (January 2024) These comments point out that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal for modifying its approach to the implementation of the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) is an abrogation of its responsibilities under the Food Quality Protection Act/Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FQPA/FFDCA) as well as the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).

  • New Use on Dicamba-Tolerant Cotton and Soybeans, EPA-HQ-OPP-2024-0154 (June 2024) In response to Bayer CropScience's application proposing to register new uses for a pesticide product containing dicamba, these comments were submitted to highlight the negative effects from dicamba pertaining to drift, contamination, crop damage, leaching, and toxicity to many organisms including humans.

  • Pesticide Product Registration: Dicamba; New Use on Dicamba-Tolerant Cotton and Soybeans, EPA-HQ-OPP-2024-0154 (July 2025) Similar to the comments above, the documented effects of dicamba were shared in response to BASF's application for additional food use of Engenia®.

  • Acephate Interim Registration Review, EPA-HQ-OPP-2008-0915 (July 2024) The agency proposed to cancel all uses of acephate other than tree injection to eliminate all risks of concern it has identified that exceed its level of concern for dietary/drinking water risk, residential and occupational risks, and risks to non-target organisms. While we generally agree with the broad cancellation of almost all label registrations as appropriate to remove such a dangerous pesticide from use, we question the agency’s decision to maintain the current uses of acephate for tree injection. 12 organizations joined these comments as sign-ons.

  • Draft Insecticide Strategy to Reduce Exposure of Federally Listed Endangered and Threatened Species and Designated Critical Habitats from the Use of Conventional Agricultural Insecticides, EPA-HQ-OPP-2024-0299 (September 2024) These comments denote the draft insecticide strategy as failing to achieve the proposed goals regarding mitigation measures. The draft strategy should be revised to include an explanation of how the agency plans to regulate (e.g., reject, suspend, cancel) under its Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) mandate those insecticides proposed for new registration or in registration review as to what level a Magnitude of Difference (MoD) after imposed mitigations still pose an unreasonable risk of adverse effects to listed species and/or nontarget wildlife.

  • Pesticide Registration Review: Draft Human Health and/or Ecological Risk Assessments for Several Pesticides; EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0865, EPA-HQ-OPP-2008-0844, EPA-HQ-OPP-2011-0581 (October 2024) The neonicotinoid insecticides clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, and others, showcase how a multitude of peer-reviewed scientific studies highlight the chemicals’ link to neurological impairments, ecological and environmental effects, and occupational hazard and necessitate the removal of compounds with such high health risks.

  • Pesticide Registration Review: Proposed Decisions for Several Pesticides; EPA-HQ-OPP-2015-0291, EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0317 (October 2024) For the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed interim decisions regarding the pesticide registration reviews of malathion and mancozeb, Beyond Pesticides advocates for EPA to carry out its statutory responsibility under the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) to protect human and environmental health from the unreasonable impacts of these pesticides and revoke any associated uses. Studies find both malathion, an organophosphate insecticide, and mancozeb, an ethylene bisdithiocarbamate (EBDC) fungicide, to be neurotoxic and potentially carcinogenic to humans, as well as toxic to many other organisms.

  • Pesticide Product Registration: Applications for New Uses, EPA-HQ-OPP-2023-0555 (December 2024) In the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approving additional uses of bifenthrin on crops, the pesticide treadmill is perpetuated and further contributions to the existential crises of biodiversity collapse, health threats, and the climate emergency occur. Bifenthrin is a pyrethroid insecticide that has reported hazards of organ damage and suspected carcinogenicity with human exposure, as well as endocrine disruption and neurological, dermal, respiratory, ocular, cardiovascular, and gastrointestinal effects. We urge the agency to deny any further uses of bifenthrin, as well as to consider revoking the registration of this harmful compound, due to findings of high risk and demonstrated adverse impacts on health and the environment.  

ART AS A VEHICLE FOR INSPIRATION AND CHANGE

We have generated increasing excitement with our art submission page, tapping into the talent in our network to provide artistic messages supporting community-based work across the country. Our Art Page displays all art submissions, from drawings and paintings to photographs and literature, for users to enjoy. Additionally, we incorporate art submissions as feature pieces in the weekly newsletters or on our social media.

Throughout 2024, over 120 submissions were added to the Art Page. As of December 2024, the page hosts 160+ photos, seven works of writing, one music video, and 50+ paintings/drawings, totaling over 200 works of art.

We encourage all members to share your art! In submitting artwork, permission is given to Beyond Pesticides to share media, but all ownership rights are retained by the artist. All appropriate art submissions will post to the Art Page weekly, and we look forward to celebrating all future creative works!

THE FUTURE

The challenges ahead require that we redouble our efforts. Beyond Pesticides’ collaboration with people and communities in every state is providing the energy and enthusiasm to embrace the changes necessary to stop toxic pesticide use and embrace organic practices and policies. We know it can be done if we join together to protect health and the environment with science, policy, and activism. The solutions are within our reach. We look forward to working with you in 2025—with the required sense of urgency—to ensure the protection of health and the environment.

Best wishes for a healthy new year!

Do not forget to decorate your tree and home using eco-friendly materials and consider choosing organic/eco-friendly gifts for loved ones like gifts from Beyond Pesticides’ online shop!   

Resources for Organic and Fair Trade Gifts