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Beyond Pesticides wishes our supporters and network all the best for the holiday season and the new year. We look forward to working with you in the new year to meet the severe environmental and public health challenges with truly organic solutions.

With your support of Beyond Pesticides this year, our goal to reverse the destructive environmental and public health path that we’re on with a transformative strategy that advances the adoption of organic practices and policies that respect life. Our accomplishments are your victories. We see the outcomes in communities across the country—adopting organic land management policies and practices that eliminate toxic pesticides, and protect children, pets, families, and the local ecology.

With 42 years and a track record of successfully advancing systemic change, we know that the solutions are within our grasp. We are honored to work collaboratively to make this happen . . . now and for future generations.

[2021 Review, 2020 Review]

Here are some highlights of how our supporters have helped us in 2022:

 Read Our Entire Message Below 

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.

Beyond Pesticides is working toward the societal transition to practices and policies that eliminate toxic pesticide use in the next decade. This work intersects with daily decisions made in households, school districts, and municipal and state governments, as well as at the federal level, on crucial issues relating to the health of children, families, and workers, the climate crisis, and biodiversity. Our work helps to inform practices and policies that go to the core of public health protection and the sustainability of ecosystems. Beyond Pesticides has a vibrant program of information services, policy advocacy, and hands-on support to communities, local organizations, and people, as we advocate and teach organic practices.

Our program bridges policy and practice—reframing strategies that simply go after the 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. This is the framework we adopt as we work at the local, state, and federal levels in advancing policy reform. It is especially important as national attention is focused on the meaningful systemic change that addresses disproportionate risk to people of color communities and workers, from farmworkers to landscapers.

TAKING A STAND

Beyond Pesticides’ program supports a clear message: End toxic pesticide use and embrace organic practices and policies that respect the power of nature to heal—in the face of devastating and destructive toxic chemical dependency. This past year has again elevated important public discourse on the threats that pesticides pose to health and the environment. We see in the mainstream culture increased understanding that pesticides threaten health, wreak havoc with ecosystems, create imbalances in nature that escalate threats—and are not needed for cost-effective land and building management. Also, reinforced in the last year is a deep appreciation for the reality that local advocacy drives the changes that are critical to a livable future—scientific facts coupled with action advance the adoption of solutions that are within our reach.

CAMPAIGNS AND FUNDRAISERS

Beyond Pesticides thanks all of our donors and supporters for their contributions over the year. Without your help, our mission would not be possible. 

Members and Donors. It's a fact, your support makes our work possible. We provide up-to-the-minute information about the health and environmental hazards of pesticides, pesticide regulation and policy, pesticide alternatives, and cutting-edge science—free of charge to the public. We can't do it without the generosity of people like you. Your donation provides the resources we need to continue our important work to protect people and the planet. Please make a year-end gift today!

Natural Grocers Campaign. We are moving forward in collaboration with Natural Grocers, which operates 161 stores in 20 western, southwestern, and Midwest states. For the third year, Natural Grocers is raising funds for Beyond Pesticides’ Parks for a Sustainable Future program throughout the month of April, through its LadybugLove campaign. Natural Grocers explains the program on its website. This offers Beyond Pesticides an expanded opportunity to not only raise resources needed for our cornerstone work to advance a transition to organic land management nationwide but to leverage the reach of a local retail market as a point of education and outreach. We are collaborating with Natural Grocers on in-store information materials and action strategies while seeking to leverage the relationship to engage more partners in our program. We are currently working in nine communities in Natural Grocers communities and want to triple this number in the next year. These communities become models for their region and the nation.

Joining with Other Organizations. Beyond Pesticides, in collaboration with Friends of the Earth (FOE) and other organizations, created a campaign page dedicated to highlighting the danger of pesticide use. The overall message about pesticides sold at retain giants is centered on the scary adverse impacts of glyphosate and other pesticides on pollinators like bees. However, we also highlighted our 40 most common lawn and landscape chemicals factsheet to further showcase the potential harms of pesticide exposure on health and the environment. The chemicals on this sheet contain active ingredients that could be present in products sold at Home Depot and Lowe’s. There is also a link to the herbicide analysis, which highlights a definitive list of products sold at the two retail stores and associated health and environmental effects. The ongoing campaign brings awareness to the harms of common residential pesticide use and advocates for a transition to organic.

1% for the Planet. 1% for the Planet is a global movement inspiring businesses to support environmental solutions through the support of everyday actions. Today, only 3% of philanthropy goes toward environmental giving. The objective of the network is to significantly increase the overall amount of global dollars going to protect the planet with the smartest donations possible. One of our corporate 39^th Forum sponsors, Naturpedic (mattress), recommended an Environmental Partnership with “1% for the Planet.” Participating companies, or “Business Members” who commit to giving 1% of gross sales each year to approved environmental partners (they typically display a label on their product(s) that they give 1% for the Planet) can use these funds to donate to Beyond Pesticides and use the 1% label.

ELEVATING SCIENCE THAT CALLS FOR URGENT NEED TO ACT

From a public health and environmental protection perspective, these are challenging times. Amid the attack on institutions and laws established to protect children, families, and the environment under the current federal administration, there is an incredibly positive groundswell of activity seeking to achieve these protections in communities across the U.S. We are inspired by the level of effective advocacy and changes in practices that are moving forward nationwide.

Disproportionate Risks

Comments to EPA Administrator Michael Regan: “While we are encouraged to see the formation of EPA’s new Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights, the agency has a historical bias against preventive action to ensure the protection of those disproportionately poisoned by toxic chemicals. While critically important to clean up contaminated communities, EPA must stop the flow of toxic pesticides at the front end because of the disproportionate poisoning effects of use, handling, transportation, and disposal. We live in an age of practices and products that make toxic pesticides unnecessary and their use unconscionable. Yet, EPA insists on the acceptability of harm (which it calls risk), despite its failure to (i) recognize comorbidities and preexisting health conditions, (ii) consider a combination of multiple chemical exposure interactions, and (iii) cite extensive missing health outcomes information (e.g., on endocrine disruption) and a resulting high level of uncertainty."

Health

Health threats from daily pesticide use initiate or exacerbate public health threats associated with a wide range of illnesses. Within this context, there are disproportionate risks to people of color communities, and occupations with elevated risk.

Biodiversity

Why We Give Focus to Biodiversity. A vast amount of research demonstrates the importance of protecting complex biological communities. The interrelationship and interdependency of organisms are critical to ecological balance and human survival. With broad-spectrum pesticide use and indiscriminate poisoning with systemic pesticides, an ecological imbalance is created, sacrificing the benefits of nature and escalating pest problems.

Over the year, Beyond Pesticides addressed the decline in pollinators as a crucial part of the crisis leading to the collapse of biodiversity. To that end, we support efforts in the states to adopt legislation that seeks to support pollinators through the establishment and protection of habitat and the restriction of pesticides. Our organization work to track the science of threats to support action. Pollinators––bees, butterflies, birds, bats, and other organisms––make a critical contribution to plant health, crop productivity, and the preservation of natural resources, but their existence continues to be threatened by their pesticide-contaminated habitat.

1. Provide organic habitat on your own property and encourage your town to go organic. Beyond Pesticides has compiled and updated our Pollinator-Friendly Seeds and Nursery Directory of companies and organizations that sell organic seeds and plants to the general public.
2. Tell your U.S. Representative and Senators to support Saving America’s Pollinators Act.
3. Tell Kroger, the largest supermarket operator in the U.S., and other retailers to adopt a pollinator protection policy that adequately addresses toxic pesticide use.
4. Tell EPA and President Biden to ban all pesticides and treated seeds that harm pollinators.

Climate

With the April 4, 2022 release of the United Nation’s IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report, the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres said that the lack of action puts us “firmly on track towards an unlivable world. We are on a fast track to climate disaster.” The findings of “Agriculture and climate change are reshaping insect biodiversity worldwide,” published in Nature by scientists at University College London, UK, are the first to elucidate the interactions between major drivers of the ongoing insect apocalypse.

Possible Focus Intersection with pesticides:

• Fossil fuels Cradle to grave – the exposure from production, use through disposal, and the impacts on climate
• Point of no return –link to fossil fuel pesticides and fertilizers
• Bumblebee decline/pollinator decline Alternatives: State of California Plan to reduce carbon Fork to Farm (Europe)
• How organic land management as a solution compares with other solutions (in terms of cost and efficiency) e.g., replacing energy sources, replacing gas with electric cars, etc.
• The leadership of youth-led climate organizations and connection to organic land management and climate.

PUTTING IN PLACE EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS

Outdated chemical-intensive practices are tied to the belief that parks, playing fields, home lawns, and agriculture require toxic chemicals and synthetic fertilizers to meet expectations. So, an approach that recognizes the importance of soil biology in cycling nutrients naturally to feed plants is often new to many 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. Those 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 a $50 billion industry and the fastest-growing part of the agricultural economy.

Meeting the Challenges with a Transformative Strategy

Our efforts focus on shifting communities’ approach to land and building management to address critical health and environmental issues. To move this goal forward, 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.

Keeping Organic Strong

Beyond Pesticides’ Keeping Organic Strong campaign is critical to organic integrity and, while the issues are not simple, many people engage with us on the decisions before the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) and the National Organic Program. The 15-member NOSB, consisting of four farmers, three environmentalists, three consumers, two food processors, and one retailer, scientist, and certifying agent, votes to allow or prohibit substances and practices in certified organic food and farming. The NOSB acts as a sounding board within the federal government for the organic community, as it considers input from you, the public—the concerned citizens and consumers upon whom organic integrity depends.

Organic consumers and farmers have invested in the notion that we care not only about land stewardship and what we feed our children and families but stopping farmworker exposure to hazardous materials and ending the hazards to the fenceline communities where the toxic chemicals used in chemical-intensive agriculture are produced. The organic law, of course, requires the 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. We continue to work closely with the National Organic Coalition to expand the reach of our positions.

Challenging the Failure to Regulate Pesticides Adequately. Before the NOSB meets twice yearly, we affirm the importance of organic integrity, updating our Keeping Organic Strong page and submitting comments on all issues before the board. Surely, if we are advancing organic as a solution, we must get involved in ensuring that it is not coopted by industrial agriculture and those who do not share its values and principles. While the issues are not simple, many people engage with us on the decisions before the NOSB and the National Organic Program. But, as we know, while we can engage many enlightened organic consumers in the intricacies of organic law and the need to protect organic integrity, we still only engage a subset of the typical organic eater. As we know, people do rally against clear threats. So, our successful work to stop antibiotic use (which tarnishes the brand) in organic or stop federal preemption of the right to restrict pesticide use locally (in the last Farm Bill) does engage people. These issues keep popping up. It is not as easy with what appear to be more wonky challenges like the fight to protect the foundational principle of “sunsetting” all synthetic substances in organic law and the need for continuous improvement in organic standards. This process is intended to ensure a rigorous review of any synthetics that are on the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances.

TAKING ACTION IN COMMUNITIES

Local land management and ordinances across the country 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 and result in a healthier and more resilient plant life that stands up to stress and is less reliant on limited water resources.

Creating model communities

Our broader strategic work continues, as we went virtual with our community-based program across the country to transition land management to organic practices. Our information and community support continue to be an important source of independent scientific and practical information to inform the transition away from toxic pesticides in the face of dramatic declines in environmental quality, the climate crisis, and the insect apocalypse. We will continue to advocate for community policies and practices that embrace transparent decision-making with public participation, and organic compatible materials for land and building management.

We are well-positioned to effect changes in communities that serve as a model for other communities. We continue to develop informational tools that support change agents, whether they are advocates or elected officials. We are also able to provide land managers with technical skills, which ensure the effective implementation of policies and plans for sustainable and organic land management.

Community Projects

Our expanding program spans 51 communities in 26 states and major cities, including a landmark project in New York City (NYC) that launched demonstration projects across all the city’s boroughs. The NYC project resulted from legislation passed on Earth Day 2021 that prohibits toxic pesticide use in parks and protects neighborhoods that are predominantly people of color—those who are at elevated levels of risk. The project in NYC, as well as other communities, also protects workers/landscapers, who are disproportionately people of color. After years of working in a coalition with New York City organizations (now called Eco-Friendly Parks for All) and the city council, we negotiated an agreement with the New York City Parks Department to set up organic demonstration parks. In September 2022, we launched the demonstration sites with in-person visits to five NYC sites. We were joined by Chip, The Black Institute, and the staff of Stonyfield Organic, which is underwriting the project.

In addition, we added to this project the following communities with a 3-year commitment to consult: Brookline (MA), Wilmington (NC), New York City (NY), Denton (TX), Midway (UT), Egg Harbor, and Door County (WI). These add to our continuing support of communities that are in their second and third years and serve as models nationwide. To expand the program, we are always reaching out to numerous communities, most recently Oceanside and San Diego (CA), Hallowell (ME), Kansas City (MO), Dubuque (IA), and Los Alamos (NM). To support this effort, we launched our Parks for a Sustainable Future webpage, which allows communities to access our technical support and begin organizing in their communities.

Parks for Sustainable Future Continued

Over the past year, Beyond Pesticides has continued to grow the Parks for a Sustainable Future program and developed a schedule for checking in with existing demonstration sites that we have launched over the last two years.  

Sustainable Parks Natural Turf Trainings, Stonyfield Organic. Winter/Spring 2022 has consisted of Beyond Pesticides continuing work with Osborne Organics on natural turf training, introductory calls and scheduling follow-up calls to our continuing and new participating communities for the sustainable parks program. The picture above is from Portsmouth, NH, where Stonyfield Organic has provided the resources that have resulted in the citywide adoption of organic land management in their park system. The above signage offers residents information on the program and how people can adopt organic land management practices on their own property.

Maui Food Hub Continued

The Maui (food) Hub started as a partnership between Beyond Pesticides, Common Ground Collective, and the Haleakala Chapter of the Hawai’i Farmers Union. Maui Hub has just celebrated its second birthday. As it becomes more established, we are able to be more vocal about our organizational values; that our long-term goal is the increase in the amount of organic food produced on Maui and equitable access to that food across income levels. Now that the Hubʻs day-to-day operations have become more efficient, we are able to participate more in long-term planning, relationship building across the agriculture industry, and policy/advocacy work for organic and indigenous farmers.

The Hub currently serves 57 farms and producers, and our regular interaction with small farmers has given us an incredible snapshot of challenges, needs, and gaps in the organic food support system. Through our work with the Hub, we have gained a seat at the decision-making table when it comes to the future of agriculture on Maui, in spaces that have generally been reserved for organizations that take an “all agriculture is good agriculture” approach.

(See https://www.kitv.com/video/moving-forward-maui-hub/video_749fb54d-cbd6-5e14-aa1c-b1286161710d.html and https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2022/03/food-hub-grows-beyond-expectations/)

ACTION OF THE WEEK

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 undermine the advancement of organic, sustainable, and regenerative practices and policies. With almost 25,000+ subscribers, the actions generate between 2,000 and 4,000+ participants weekly.

The top five AOTWs with the most contributions include:

1. Aid Programs Must Support Traditional and Organic, Not Chemical-Intensive, Agriculture (04/11/2022)
2. Pesticide Law Needs Real Reform (01/03/2022)
3. Tell EPA to Take Meaningful Action to Protect Endangered Species (03/21/2022)
4. Insist That USDA Uphold Organic Integrity and the Law (03/07/2022)
5. EPA Must Protect Birds, Bees, and Other Pollinators; Ban Neonic Insecticides (04/04/2022)

FRAMEWORK FOR POLICY CHANGE

Beyond Pesticides issues unique reports to support local activism to move changes in practices and policies that eliminate pesticide use. With this information and the model policy that we have created, local people nationwide have successfully moved on to change.

Beyond Pesticides is about building a groundswell of action that drives the necessary changes—changes that take place in people’s homes and gardens, in their purchasing decisions, in their local communities, park districts, school districts, and in management decisions throughout the community. The models we establish in partnership with local communities can be replicated in communities across the country. And since we will not achieve a sustainable, socially just society and world by simply banning or restricting one chemical after the other, we are advancing systemic changes that start at the community level, but intersect with state, national, and international policy and corporate accountability. We continue to engage with this issue through a building coalition of a range of state and national groups. This coalition work forms collaborations around legislation to restrict pesticides and PFAS, particularly in the context of recent legislation passed in Maine over the summer requiring state tests on pesticide products to ensure no PFAS is present.  

Pesticides and You. Our work over the last year and as we move into the new year is organized into nine categories that define the problem and solution to the existential threats related to health decline, biodiversity collapse, and the climate emergency. We captured this in Retrospective 2021: A Call to Urgent Action, a special issue of Pesticides and You, where we lay out a framework to inform urgent action in the following categories, which support our 10-year goal to eliminate toxic pesticides and fertilizers, and elevate the urgent need for governmental, corporate, and individual action at all levels.

The Path Moving Forward: Organic. Beyond Pesticides has taken a holistic approach to advance 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 local governments.

We collaborate with groups, such as Protect South Portland and Portland Protectors (ME), Parks for Kids NYC, Toxic Free Philly, Bee Safe Minneapolis, and Toxic Free Pima County (AZ), among many others. This collaboration extends to municipal parks departments through which we conduct a robust program to:

The Path Moving Forward: Organic. Beyond Pesticides has taken a holistic approach to advance 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 local governments.

We collaborate with groups, such as Protect South Portland and Portland Protectors (ME), Parks for Kids NYC, Toxic Free Philly, Bee Safe Minneapolis, and Toxic Free Pima County (AZ). This collaboration extends to municipal parks departments through which we conduct a robust program to:

1. Educate on holistic organic management, and its importance to health and the environment;
2. Evaluate soil and management practices;
3. Produce an organic transition plan;

4. Assist with implementation. Nationally, we have teamed up with Stonyfield Organic, and throughout the west, we are working with Natural Grocers, which has 162 stores in 20 states.

39^th Natural Pesticide Forum. Health, Biodiversity, and Climate: A Path for a Livable Future created a new approach to our annual Forum, a 3-part seminar series available for free and then on our website. Over 600 people registered from the U.S. and a dozen other countries. In each category of our involvement with health, biodiversity, and climate—whether working with professionals or lay people, local elected officials or concerned advocates— we play a critical role in enhancing public understanding of the science and the practical hands-on experience to inform the urgent steps that must be taken at the local, state, and national levels. Addressing problems and solutions to these three topics, we teach that with these existential threats there is a disproportionate risk to people of color communities and those with health vulnerabilities.

While the current challenges result from a confluence of issues that are harmful to sustaining life, the need for carefully defined sustainable land management and building and household practices and products is urgent. The National Forum Series launches Beyond Pesticides’ effort to eliminate fossil fuel-based pesticide use within the next decade, putting a stop to toxic emissions, exposure, and residues, while embracing an organic systems approach that is holistic and respectful of life. The goal of the Forum Series is to enable a collective strategy to address the existential health, biodiversity, and climate threats and chart a path for a livable and sustainable future. We come together to empower effective action. You are part of the solution! Look forward to our 2023 conference.

You can still attend the 3-part National Forum Series. Check out the 2022, and 2021 Forum sessions and listen to the amazing speakers.

SCIENCE & ADVOCACY RESOURCES

Beyond Pesticides' website serves as a hub for a range of regulatory and policy advocacy, information services to people nationwide and around the globe, networking through coalition work and the convening of our National Forum, and on-site training on organic land management in communities that are collaborating with Beyond Pesticides on demonstration parks and playing fields.