Dear John,
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With your help, we can protect bees and other pollinators from toxic pesticides: 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:
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Bees and other important insects sustain life on Earth, but more than 40% of insect species are declining and a third are endangered -- and pesticides are a key culprit. If we don’t take immediate action, scientists warn we could soon see a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems.” Please donate to Friends of the Earth now to protect bees and our food system from toxic pesticides.
The European Commission just announced that, to save the 76% of food production in Europe that depends on pollination, they're planning to halt the decline of bees and other pollinators by cutting the EU’s use of chemical pesticides in half by 2030. This follows their partial ban of one of the worst types of bee-killing pesticides: neonicotinoids.
Now we need the U.S. to follow suit. Banning bee-killing pesticides is critical to saving these essential species, and thus our food system. Friends of the Earth has been working tirelessly to protect bees, butterflies, and our planet, but we’re up against the powerful lobbying of Big Ag, as well as corrupt corporate cronies in Trump’s administration. We’ll only win against these powerful foes together.
It’s time for the U.S. to follow the science. 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:
Bees are essential to our food system and are responsible for pollinating many of the delicious and nutritious foods on our plates -- from apples to avocados to almonds. However, across North America, more than 700 species of bees are facing rapid decline.
With so much at stake, Friends of the Earth has been protecting our pollinators for years, harnessing massive grassroots support that has led to state governments banning bee-toxic pesticides and huge retailers phasing them out of their supply chains. Now we’re ramping up our campaigns targeting legislators and the EPA, as well as sellers of these pesticides like the garden industry, to shift away from bee-toxic pesticides and replace them with organic, safe alternatives.
And we have an important new opportunity to push the EPA to protect pollinators -- the agency just announced it will extend its public comment period on one of the worst bee-killing pesticides: neonicotinoids, known as neonics.
So we’re driving mass comments -- in response to the EPA’s proposal earlier this year to reapprove neonics, despite its own scientists’ assessments that they’re harmful to pollinators, birds, aquatic invertebrates, and humans -- especially children. Studies show that Americans are exposed to neonicotinoids not only in the food we eat (including baby food!), but also in tap water.
Unlike in the EU and Canada, where leaders have based their policy decisions on science and banned many of these toxic pesticides, the U.S. government has not only failed to act, it has greenlit additional use of neonicotinoids.
But we know that Trump’s administration is rejecting science, which is why we’re also pushing for state-level bans of neonics and other harmful pesticides, and why we’ve focused on pushing the garden industry to phase out these toxic chemicals from their supply chains. Thanks to ongoing pressure from hundreds of thousands of people like you, all major garden retailers -- including Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walmart and Ace Hardware -- have committed to eliminate neonics.
So we’re taking the next step, pushing supermarkets to stop selling food produced with neonics and another toxic pesticide: glyphosate, found primarily in Monsanto’s Roundup®. It destroys milkweed, the only source of food for young monarch butterflies, and although it’s linked to cancer, it’s still regularly used on food, schools, and playgrounds. We need supermarkets to act -- because the Trump administration is failing to.
We don’t have much time to save bees and other pollinators, John: 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:
The fight is still on to ban other toxic pesticides, as well.
Last year, the EPA announced that it wouldn’t ban the neurotoxic, brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos. In 2015, after extensive study, EPA scientists confirmed that there is no safe level of exposure to chlorpyrifos, and the Obama administration moved forward with a proposed ban.
But in 2017, in one of its first actions under the Trump administration, the EPA reversed course on the ban, defying the agency’s own scientists. This decision followed a $1 million donation from Dow Chemical to Trump’s inaugural fund.
Thanks to the efforts of people like you, states have moved forward in the face of federal inaction: Hawaii, New York, California, and Maryland have all moved to ban chlorpyrifos! (We’re still fighting to secure progress in Maryland after the governor just vetoed the chlorpyrifos ban bill that Friends of the Earth and allies pushed to the finish line.)
We’re also working to protect our planet from another pesticide known as atrazine, which is still used in the U.S. even though the EU has totally banned it. Over 16 million Americans are already facing dangerous levels of atrazine in their drinking water. Atrazine is linked to serious health effects like cancer, hormone disruption, and birth defects.
Not only does this chemical cause serious health harms -- it’s a risk to fish, amphibians, and other life. In fact, it’s such a powerful hormone disruptor it can turn male frogs into female frogs with viable eggs. However, Trump’s EPA is exploiting the pandemic to allow Syngenta, the manufacturer of atrazine, to stop monitoring levels of this toxic chemical in Midwest lakes and streams for the rest of the year!
If we’re going to protect our food system and the web of life that supports it, we need to make massive changes. And we can’t do it without your support.
Before it’s too late: Help save bees and other vital pollinators, John: 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
