Pesticide Policies

Pesticide Policies

We need policy makers to put the health of people and pollinators above the profits of the pesticide industry.

While we work to leverage the economic power of companies in the marketplace, Friends of the Earth is also working to pass strong policies to protect pollinators and people, reduce use of toxic pesticides and rapidly transition to a healthy, just and sustainable food system.

Federal pesticide policy is failing to protect our health and environment. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allows the use of many hazardous pesticides banned in other countries thanks to regulatory loopholes and the lobbying power of the pesticide industry. After a spate of mega-mergers, the three largest pesticide companies — Bayer-Monsanto, Dow-Dupont and Syngenta-ChemChina — now control over 65 percent of the global pesticide market and 61 percent of commercial seed sales.

Our federal food and agriculture policies subsidize and incentivize pesticide-intensive, industrial agriculture to the tune of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, organic and regenerative agriculture are woefully underfunded. Less than 1% of federal agricultural research dollars support ecological farming research, for example. This corporate control of our food system also threatens the health and safety of our nation’s farm workers. EPA has continuously proposed rollbacks of regulations that protect farm workers from pesticides.

For a summary of international policy leadership on key pesticides of concern — neonicotinoids, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos — click here.