Food & Agriculture
We work to rapidly transition our food system to one that is sustainable, healthy, and just. For decades, United States food and farming policy, corporate power and agricultural science have been directed toward a narrow goal: producing as many calories as possible as cheaply as possible. The confluence of these forces has created a powerful river of toxic, energy-intensive factory farming. We are eroding public health, worker safety, local economies, animal welfare, and the resilience of the ecosystems we depend on. Solutions are available — if policymakers, people and businesses make vitally needed changes. We must farm in a way that protects the health of people and the planet. We seek three fundamental shifts in our food system: from toxic and chemical intensive to healthy and ecologically regenerative; from corporate controlled to democratically governed; and from a system that embodies the deepest inequities in our society to one that advances justice and fulfills the needs of all eaters now and in the future.
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Food & Agriculture Tell Congress: Help farmers grow sustainable, healthy foodTAKE ACTION
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Food & Agriculture Tell Amazon and grocery stores to say NO to GMO applesTAKE ACTION
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Food & Agriculture Tell Kroger: Step up and protect beesTAKE ACTION
Today, over 80 citizen, agricultural, disability, environmental, health, and labor advocacy groups sent a public letter to Gov. Cuomo urging him to protect the health of children and farmworkers by banning the brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos.
A new peer-reviewed study shows an explosion in the toxicity of U.S. agriculture for insects over the past 25 years since neonicotinoid pesticides were introduced. The study found that U.S. agriculture is 48 times more toxic to insect life, and that neonicotinoids account for 92 percent of the increase in…
The EPA’s refusal to ban chlorpyrifos ignores decades of science showing that this pesticide has irrevocable effects on human health and the environment.
Friends of the Earth members successfully pressured unqualified, anti-science USDA nominee Sam Clovis to withdraw from consideration.
Thanks to Friends of the Earth, three-quarters of the garden industry has moved away from neonics, and many major retailers have committed to stop selling plants and products treated with these bee-killing pesticides.
Thanks to pressure from Friends of the Earth and thousands of our members who highlighted the many sustainability and health concerns surrounding genetically engineered salmon and the lack of consumer demand, 80 food retailers have made commitments to not sell GE salmon, including Walmart, Costco, Albertson’s, Kroger, Trader Joe’s and…
Our agricultural system is so intertwined with the economic system that is causing the climate crisis that any Green New Deal will need to address how we produce and consume what we eat. That will require actions from combatting corporate consolidation to ensuring fair prices for farmers to supporting growers…
Like millions of farmworkers who have labored in America’s fields and orchards, I know what it’s like to grow the food we eat using toxic pesticides.
Climate change is a crisis that needs new thinking. For almost 30 years, the promise of cap-and-trade, carbon markets and faith in capitalism have generated a never-ending debate that has careened toward political inaction.