From our friends at

Pollinator Pathways

Say NO to Taking Away State & Local Authority to Restrict Pesticides!

 

Contact Your U.S. Senators & House Rep

 

 Ask your representatives in Congress to oppose the Agricultural Labeling Uniformity Act (H.R. 4288) proposed as part of the 2023 federal Farm Bill, which threatens to undermine local and state authority to protect the health of their residents from pesticides.

 

Although the bill appears to focus on labeling, it contains preemption language that denies any state or locality their right to impose restrictions on dangerous pesticides.

 

Over 200 communities and six states, Alaska, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Hawaii and Vermont, have already enacted pesticide restrictions tougher than federal regulations. These would be nullified. And, for example, legislation such as New York’s Birds and Bees Protection Act and other laws restricting neurotoxic neonicotinoids would be reversed.  

 

The most powerful messages to Congress are those that come from you via email, letter, or a phone call.  Find your house representative and your senators. Or, reach them via this one-click action from Beyond Pesticides.

 

 

Say YES to Protecting Our Children!

While you have your US Senators and House Rep on the phone, ask them to support and co-sponsor the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act (S.269), or PACTPA.  This bill calls on the EPA to ban many of the most dangerous pesticides, introduce robust protections for farmworkers, and close loopholes that allow the pesticide industry to circumvent important safety reviews. 

 

Each year, the United States uses over a billion pounds of pesticides, or nearly a fifth of worldwide use. Approximately one-third of this use comes from pesticides that are banned in the European Union, such as neonicotinoids.

 

A recent Brookings Institution report on the EPA and its role in monitoring pesticide use states, “a mounting body of evidence indicates that the agency, long-heralded for its early decision to ban DDT, has evolved into a more timid regulator that has not kept pace with the rest of the world to protect the health of people and wildlife.” 

 

Our friends at the Center for Biological Diversity have provided a simple form for contacting your senators and congressman/woman about PACTPA.

 

When you contact your representatives, please mail us a copy of your email or a note about your call. Please share this email!

 

In case you missed our recent webinar on Neonic pesticides,

HERE is a recording.

 

From our friends at ALDF

Your elected leaders need to hear from you today because time is running out for millions of animals. An undercover investigation conducted by Animal Outlook of Holden Farms, a pig breeding facility, revealed shocking cruelty to pigs and piglets. We need every one of our supporters to demand justice and an end to factory farm abuse. 

Please sign the petition to your members of Congress now, alerting them to the atrocities committed at Holden Farms and urging their strongest action to tackle widespread factory farm abuse. Your elected officials also need to know that the acts of cruelty committed at Holden Farms amount to violations of the law that occurred at taxpayers’ expense. 

Alleged abuses include:

  • Mother pigs were routinely kicked and beaten;

  • Piglets fell through holes in their crates and died in pits of feces, urine and the decaying corpses of other piglets;

  • Mother pigs were fed dead piglet intestines, bodily fluids and pig feces — a practice known as “feedback”; 

  • Numerous pigs had severe prolapses where their intestines spilled out of their bodies; 

  • Piglets tried to nurse on their dead mother who suffered a prolapse that spilled out of her crate;

  • Male piglets’ testicles were ripped off, and their tails were bitten off by workers.

The abuse exposed at Holden Farms is disgusting, unethical and unlawful — and they must be held accountable for their actions. 

Take a stand against the factory farm industry and tell your legislators you will not sit by while your tax dollars are used to fund animal cruelty. Thank you for your urgent action!

Sign the Petition

For the animals, 

The Animal Legal Defense Fund