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.
A coalition of farmers, health professionals, and environmental groups are celebrating today after Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Birds and Bees Protection Act.
We are buzzing with praise for our Senate and Assembly members taking action to address toxic neonic pesticides and protect our pollinators.
This bill will keep chlorpyrifos out of places that directly affect our communities, and provide safeguards for bees and other pollinators.
Victories
Friends of the Earth has played a pivotal role in passing groundbreaking policies from the local to federal level to restrict use of toxic pesticides and advance organic and regenerative agriculture. These campaigns build grassroots power, and state and local victories put pressure on Congress to meet the standards of leading states. These include:
- Neonicotinoid-treated seed bans in New York and Vermont
- Neonicotinoid non-agricultural bans and restrictions in Maryland, Connecticut, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, California and Vermont
- Neonicotinoid restrictions in more than 115 U.S. cities and universities.
- Chlorpyrifos bans in California, Hawaii, Connecticut, New York and Maryland.
- Protection of the integrity of the national organic standards.
Policy Action
Friends of the Earth is working to pass policies to ban or restrict toxic pesticides, protect farm workers and other frontline communities, and advance organic and regenerative agriculture. The bills we support would ban some of the most toxic pesticides in our food system, close regulatory loopholes that bring unsafe pesticides to market, fix EPA’s regulatory process, remove toxic pesticides from school food and more. We regularly organize lobby days, sign-on letters and engage tens of thousands of advocates in grassroots actions to support these efforts.
The Birds and Bees Protection Act proposed to eliminate 80-90% of the neonics entering New York’s environment yearly.
For far too long, we’ve been exposed to a neurotoxic pesticide called chlorpyrifos, despite decades of science clearly linking this pesticide to brain damage in children.
While the federal government prioritizes donations over decades of science, it’s more important than ever for states like New York to step up to protect public health and environment.