Special Policy Alert
Sharing this important message and action from our friends at the Association to Preserve Cape Cod.
***
Say NO to Taking Away State & Local Authority to Restrict Pesticides!
Ask your representatives in Congress to oppose the Agricultural Labeling Uniformity Act (H.R. 4288) proposed as part of the 2023 federal Farm Bill, which threatens to undermine local and state authority to protect the health of their residents from pesticides.
Although the bill appears to focus on labeling, it contains preemption language that denies any state or locality their right to impose restrictions on dangerous pesticides.
Over 200 communities and six states, Alaska, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Hawaii and Vermont, have already enacted pesticide restrictions tougher than federal regulations. These would be nullified. And, for example, legislation such as New York’s Birds and Bees Protection Act and other laws restricting neurotoxic neonicotinoids would be reversed.
The most powerful messages to Congress are those that come from you via email, letter, or a phone call. Find your house representative and your senators. Or, reach them via this one-click action from Beyond Pesticides.
While you have your U.S. senators and House representative on the phone, ask them to support and co-sponsor the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act (S.269), or PACTPA. This bill calls on the EPA to ban many of the most dangerous pesticides, introduce robust protections for farmworkers, and close loopholes that allow the pesticide industry to circumvent important safety reviews.
Each year, the United States uses over a billion pounds of pesticides, or nearly a fifth of worldwide use. Approximately one-third of this use comes from pesticides that are banned in the European Union, such as neonicotinoids.
A recent Brookings Institution report on the EPA and its role in monitoring pesticide use states, “a mounting body of evidence indicates that the agency, long-heralded for its early decision to ban DDT, has evolved into a more timid regulator that has not kept pace with the rest of the world to protect the health of people and wildlife.”
The Center for Biological Diversity has provided a simple form for contacting your senators and congressman/woman about PACTPA.
