140,393 Americans ask USDA to stop silencing its scientists

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A coalition of food safety, consumer, and environmental groups will deliver 140,393* petition signatures urging the USDA to stop silencing its own scientists and censoring their research findings on bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides. Research about these pesticides, which are a key factor in global bee declines, has been demonstrably suppressed when the research isn’t aligned with the pesticide industry. Americans across the country are urging Catherine Woteki, Under Secretary for the USDA’s Research Education and Economics mission area, who is ultimately responsible for this suppression, to resign her post immediately. The delivery comes just four days after The Washington Post Magazine released a característica on the issue.

Who: Beyond Pesticides, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Friends of the Earth, MoveOn.org, Organic Consumers Association, Pesticide Action Network, SumofUs, Sierra Rise

What: A petition delivery to urge USDA to stop censoring science

When: Thursday, March 10 at 10 a.m. EST

Where: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250

Visuals: Petition boxes, posters and signs

*This number has been updated as of 3/10/2016

###

Contactos de expertos:
Drew Toher, Beyond Pesticides, (202) 543-5450, [email protected]
Tiffany Finck-Haynes, Friends of the Earth, (202) 222-0715, [email protected]               

Communications contact: Kate Colwell, (202) 222-0744, [email protected]