Pesticides and You News from Beyond Pesticides: Protecting Health and the Environment with Science, Policy & Action Volume 35, Number 4 Winter 2015-16 Cultivating Plants that Poison A Special Report on Systemic Pesticides Also in this issue: What’s Up With Organic Standards? Letter from Washington 35 Years of Progress and the Tipping Point Within Our Sight eyond Pesticides in 2016 celebrates a rich 35-year history of agricultural systems can feed the world better than chemical-intensive accomplishments in organic policy and land management. We approaches. While we tinkered with integrated pest management Bare honored to be part of an extensive network of communities, (IPM) as an agricultural tool to reduce pesticide dependency, the lack people, organizations, scientists, and practitioners that educates on of a holistic approach to soil health, protection of biodiversity, and the hazards of pesticides, while moving decision and policy makers the identification of least-toxic inputs diminished its effectiveness as a to adopt sustainable organic practices. With its proven viability, we long-term sustainability approach in land management. see within our sights the opportunity for a societal transformation to organic practices that protect the environment on which life depends. I served on the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) for a 5-year term (2010-2015). Having spearheaded the 1982 Organic Farming Meeting the urgent challenges Act, which became the 1983 Agricultural Productivity Act and USDA’s We use this occasion only to reenergize ourselves to meet the urgent Low-Input Sustainable Agriculture (LISA) program, and then the 1990 challenges ahead. We are at the center of the organic transformation Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA), we knew we had tremendous that crosses issues of clean air and water, healthy food, and soil practices institutional barriers within USDA to implement policies that defied that build organic matter, sequesters carbon, and slows climate change. the chemical-intensive norms. In fighting pesticides, we protect pollinators and the ecosystem, advance systems that eliminate toxic pesticides, ensure workplaces safe for We understood that change starts in the community. Communities workers, and create communities protective of vulnerable population are increasingly seeking to prevent and eliminate, rather than simply groups like children and those with pre-existing health conditions. reduce, toxic chemical use. They recognize the importance of healthy Organic management systems are required –whether in agriculture, ecological systems at a time when increasingly smaller doses of parks, playing fields, or rangeland, from backyards to vineyards, from systemic chemicals wreak havoc with life and the natural balance. playing fields to cornfields. We can no longer afford toxic-intensive approaches that are not necessary. Local power The recent passage in October, 2015 of legislation banning toxic lawn Talking a holistic organic approach pesticides on both public and private land in Montgomery County, Since our founding in 1981, Beyond Pesticides has taken a holistic Maryland, with one million people the largest such jurisdiction in approach to advancing sustainable practices and policies and solving the U.S., is an achievement that we seek to replicate in increasing the pesticide poisoning and contamination problem through the numbers across the country. This victory, in addition to ones in adoption of organic policies and practices. We understood from our Ogunquit, Maine (2014) and in Takoma Park, Maryland (2013), inception that the dependency on toxic pesticides is unnecessary brought national attention to possibility of community-wide transition since productivity, profitability, and quality of life can be achieved with to organic land management. Industry is now pushing legislation in organic systems. In this context, although our founders recognized the Maine and Maryland to overturn local law restricting pesticides and importance of measures to restrict pesticide use through improved prevent future local action, as is the case in 43 states that preempt chemical regulation and effective toxic pesticide use reduction local municipalities. Our community-based work recognizes that strategies, we believed a crosscutting grassroots organization was pesticides move off the target site and onto neighboring land and into needed to help reframe the public debate that had emerged since the waterways through drift in the air and runoff, causing “secondhand” publication of Silent Spring, less than 20 years earlier. poisoning and contamination. Breaking down institutional barriers Providing the tools for change Despite laws governing clean air, water, food safety, and pesticides of Our continued documentation of the science on adverse health and the 1970’s, the chemicalization of society advanced at tremendous environmental effects of pesticides and weaknesses in the regulation speed with full support of the chemical industry, the U.S. Department of these toxic chemicals informs local action and is helping to drive of Agriculture (USDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the market toward organic. At the same time, it is critical that we and state and local governments nationwide. In fact, the pesticide defend the foundational federal organic law that establishes the law, which remains to this day under the jurisdiction of the Agriculture standards governing sustainable practices Committees of Congress, incorporated an institutional bias that highly against an attack by some food and toxic pesticides are essential to food productivity and quality of life. chemical companies, and the right of local Our work to advance organic agricultural systems created a new policy governments to stop hazardous pesticide framework and helped to launch a precautionary approach, starting use throughout their jurisdictions. It’s an with the premise that we do not need toxic chemicals to achieve food honor to work with you! Thank you! productivity goals. Rather, we recognized that the law must require restoration and regeneration of the soil. Since the early years of the Jay Feldman is executive director of Beyond organization, numerous studies and experience show that organic Pesticides. Pesticides and You © 2016 (ISSN 0896-7253) is published four times a year by Beyond Pes- ticides. Beyond Pesticides, founded in 1981, is a voice for health and the environment, promoting protection from pesticides and safe Contents alternatives; donations are tax-deductible. National Headquarters: 701 E Street, SE Washington DC 20003 ph: 202-543-5450 fx: 202-543-4791 email: [email protected] website: www.beyondpesticides.org Articles in this newsletter may be repro- duced without Beyond Pesticides’ permis- sion unless otherwise noted. Please credit Beyond Pesticides for reproduced material. BEYOND PESTICIDES STAFF Jay Feldman, Executive Director Stephanie Davio, Program Director/Forum Coordinator Nichelle Harriott, Science and Regulatory Director page 9 Drew Toher, Public Education Associate Nikita Naik, Science Associate Annie D’Amato, JD, Policy and Legal Associate Matt Wallach, IPM and Health Care Facility Project Director 2 Mail Amila Weerasingha, Public Education Kids Deserve Organic Lunches; How Far Has the Pesticide-Free Assistant Jen Ruocco, Executive Assistant Movement Spread? Sandy Rowley, Western Regional Coordinator Terry Shistar, Ph.D., Science Consultant 4 Washington, DC Aubrey Stevenson, Fellow Genetically Engineered Salmon Halted Due to Required Labeling Guidelines; EPA Releases Overdue Revisions to Worker Protection Standards; USDA PESTICIDES AND YOU Jay Feldman, Publisher, Editor Scientist Punished for Neonic Study Files Complaint (Federal Judge Permits Stephanie Davio, Jay Feldman, Nichelle USDA Whistleblower Case to Proceed); EPA Rule Clarifies Disclosure Harriott, Nikita Naik, Jen Ruocco, Annie Requirement of All Ingredients in Exempt Minimum Risk Pesticides D’Amato, JD, Drew Toher, Terry Shistar, Ph.D., Contributors Stephanie Davio, Layout 6 Around the Country EPA Sued for Failure to Regulate Neonics, as Agency Data Confirms Hazards; BOARD OF DIRECTORS Montreal, Canada Proposes “Complete Ban on Neonics;” DuPont and Dow Routt Reigart, M.D., president, Medical Merge to Become Biggest Pesticide Conglomerate; Records Show Suspended University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC Oregon Pesticide Spray Company Continues Operations; Campbell Soup Says Lani Malmberg, vice-president, Ewe4ic Eco- logical Services, Cheyenne, WY GE Food Is Safe, Endorses Mandatory GE Labeling to Preempt States with Terry Shistar, Ph.D., secretary, Lawrence, KS Weak Language; Home Depot Announces Phase Out of Bee-Toxic Pesticides Caroline Cox, treasurer, Center for Environmental Health, Oakland, CA 9 What’s Up With Organic Standards? Chip Osborne, at-large, Osborne Organics, Marblehead, MA Rella Abernathy, Ph.D., City of Boulder IPM 11 Cultivating Plants that Poison: A Special Report on Program, Boulder, CO Systemic Pesticides Nelson Carrasquillo, The Farmworkers Support Committee (CATA), Glassboro, NJ Paula Dinerstein, Public Employees for En- vironmental Responsibility, Washington, DC Lorna Donaldson, Donaldson Family Farm, Tiptonville, TN Melinda Hemmelgarn, RD, Food Sleuth, LLC., Columbia, MO Jay Feldman, Beyond Pesticides, Washington, DC Warren Porter, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI Brett Ramey, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA Robina Suwol, California Safe Schools, Van Nuys, CA Affiliations shown