Dear John,
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Pollinators like bees and butterflies are dying at alarming rates. Please help by donating $10 or more for World Bee Day.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
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Today is World Bee Day, a day to recognize the importance of pollinators and the threats they face from human activity. And it turns out pesticides are not only killing bees and butterflies at alarming rates, but new studies reveal they are harming another essential pollinator: moths. Donate now to protect all of our pollinators -- before it’s too late.
Just last week, researchers released a new study showing that moths also play a vital role in pollinating flowers, especially at night. And like bees and butterflies, their numbers are steeply declining, with pesticides as a key driver, threatening our planet’s biodiversity.
To protect our food system and the web of life upon which we all depend, we must protect all of our pollinators. Without them, we’re going to face ecological collapse. But we can’t fight the pesticide industry and Big Ag corporations without your help.
Pollinators need your help, John, including bees, butterflies, and now moths: Donate $10 or more to Friends of the Earth today for World Bee Day.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
The newly published research shows that moths complement the work of other pollinators by pollinating a wide variety of flowers and plants at night. We don’t typically see this activity, but moths also play an irreplaceable role in sustaining our ecosystems.
The study’s authors warned that we need immediate change to stop moths’ steep population decline, noting that pesticides and land-use change from industrial agriculture are some of the primary drivers.
That’s why Friends of the Earth runs strategic campaigns to reduce and ban toxic pesticides, and to fight factory farming, which uses massive amounts of feed grown with pollinator-harming pesticides and destroys important pollinator habitat. We’re working to shift our food system from chemical-intensive and corporate-controlled to ecologically regenerative and democratically governed.
But at the same time, Big Ag corporations are merging, like Bayer and Monsanto -- and growing their influence over our political system in order to block fundamental environmental protections. And now, Trump is exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to help the CEOs of these wealthy corporations profit even more, at the expense of pollinators and our planet.
If you chip in now, John, the resources you help raise will help us fight back against the Trump administration and their Big Ag cronies -- including countering their spin in the media and organizing millions of people around the country to make sure we’re louder than Big Ag’s lobbyists. Can you support this work today?
For World Bee Day, help save important pollinators -- like bees, butterflies, and moths -- before it’s too late, by donating $10 or more to Friends of the Earth today.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Thanks to supporters like you pushing for change, our movement for a healthier food system has made big progress.
Just last week, for example, Sen. Cory Booker introduced a bill to phase out large-scale factory farming by 2040! Sen. Elizabeth Warren co-sponsored this important bill and Rep. Ro Khanna has introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives. We’ll be pushing Congress to advance these bills in the coming months.
Here at Friends of the Earth, we’ve been pushing Congress to ban pesticides and reform industrial agriculture, including by delivering millions of constituents’ messages, supporting legislative champions who are introducing game-changing legislation, and organizing congressional briefings. We’ve harnessed massive grassroots support that’s led to state governments banning toxic pesticides and huge retailers phasing them out of their supply chains.
One pesticide we’ve fought in particular is chlorpyrifos, which kills pollinators and permanently damages children’s brains. State bans across the U.S. helped convince Dow Chemical to stop selling it! That shows how much impact we can have, together.
But we still have more work to do to get this brain-damaging pesticide out of our food system. Other companies are still making and selling chlorpyrifos. Maryland’s governor just vetoed a hard-fought bill banning it. And we’re still working to monitor states’ implementation: In California, for example, a working group to find safe alternatives has faced intense pressure from Big Ag to substitute other toxic chemicals in place of chlorpyrifos.
So, we’re pushing for a nationwide ban on chlorpyrifos and other toxic pesticides, and we’re running innovative campaigns targeting corporations that have the power to help shift us away from pesticide-intensive agriculture and make pollinator and people-friendly organic food available for all.
We have no choice but to be bold. We have a limited time to save bees and other pollinators -- and by extension, our species and our planet. And we won’t get there without you, John. Can you chip in to support our urgent work?
Help fight toxic pesticides to save bees and other pollinators: Donate $10 or more to Friends of the Earth today.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Thank you,
Lisa Archer,
Food and agriculture program director,
Friends of the Earth
