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Here are some frightening new developments from Trump’s administration:
The EPA just snuck in approval for a cancer-linked pesticide, completely ignoring the public input process. The agency itself determined that pesticide giant BASF’s isoxaflutole is likely to cause cancer and can drift up to 1,000 feet from where it’s applied, significantly damaging plants and contaminating groundwater. But the agency just snuck in an approval of its broader use anyway -- without giving the public any opportunity to comment on the decision.
On top of that, the EPA just weakened protections for endangered species by disregarding the common ways pesticides harm protected species. At pesticide corporations’ request, the agency issued new measures for how to assess pesticides’ risks. And under these new measures, lethal pesticides will remain on the market without common-sense constraints.
And after years of advocacy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just decided NOT to add monarch butterflies to the Endangered Species List. Instead, they’re starting a voluntary program asking private industry to help protect monarchs’ habitat. This project won’t give these essential pollinators nearly enough protection.
This comes at the same time as the just-released yearly count of eastern monarch butterflies that overwinter in Mexico. The count shows a decrease of 53% from last year, below the threshold at which the migration could collapse. We know this decrease is related to Monsanto’s Roundup, which has decimated monarchs' breeding habitat and milkweed, young monarchs’ only food source.
Friends of the Earth is monitoring and fighting back against these dismaying developments. But we’re up against the powerful pesticide industry, and we need your support.
Fight back against Trump’s gifts to the pesticide industry: Donate $10 to Friends of the Earth today.
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Big Ag corporations are paying attention. They know they’re unlikely to face regulation or punishment, and they’re getting bolder.
One recent horrifying example shows why we need to ramp up our fight. It starts with Roundup, which, in addition to being terrible for people and pollinators, has also harmed farmers -- by creating Roundup-resistant weeds.
To address this problem, Monsanto and another chemical giant, BASF, decided to spread another toxic pesticide, dicamba, to kill the weeds that had built up a resistance to Roundup. They created new GMO soybean and cotton crops engineered to resist dicamba, which can be directly sprayed with the pesticide and survive, while surrounding weeds die.
As is often the case with chemical-intensive industrial agriculture, the “solution” only made things worse.
Dicamba moves far from where it’s sprayed, killing the plants it drifts across. It has destroyed millions of acres of crops in the U.S. And a new lawsuit, brought by farmers against Monsanto and BASF, just unearthed documents showing that these Big Ag corporations knew that dicamba would lead to widespread damage across the U.S.
Monsanto and BASF understood but downplayed the risks. In fact, they figured the damage would help their profits, because farmers whose crops were damaged by dicamba would be forced to buy Monsanto’s new dicamba-resistant seeds. And they were right: They did indeed see a spike in demand.
This is the horrific logic of industrialized agriculture. And it’s why here at Friends of the Earth, we’re working to rapidly transition our food system from corporate-controlled, toxic, chemical-intensive industrial agriculture to a food system that is sustainable, healthy and just. We’ve made progress, thanks to your help. But we have a long way to go, and we don’t have any time to waste. In fact, millions of species depend on us getting this right.
Help shift our food system away from pesticide-intensive industrial agriculture. Help protect pollinators, people, and the planet by donating $10 to Friends of the Earth today.
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Thank you,
Lisa Archer,
Food and agriculture program director,
Friends of the Earth
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