Everyday, new information about negative health, climate, and economic impacts of chemical-intensive agriculture abound, while new reports emerge showing the benefits of organic agriculture and lifestyle. Read about them here.
Policy & Legislative News
EPA Approves Four New Pesticides That Qualify as PFAS
Civil Eats
The EPA has approved four new pesticides that scientists say are PFAS. These products are meant for crops like lettuce, corn, soybeans, and fruit, raising risks for farmworkers and nearby communities. Experts warn that these pesticides can also turn into other harmful PFAS once they are in soil and water.
Denmark Bans Pesticides Containing Problematic PFAS Ingredients
Food Safety Magazine
Denmark’s Environmental Protection Agency is banning 23 pesticides containing PFAS active ingredients. These active substances like fluazinam and diflufenican, will be phased out over six to fifteen months, with ten more under review. This precautionary move protects soil, water, and human health, and is an impressive step toward reducing pesticide dependency and championing safer alternatives.
USDA Drops Rules Requiring Farmers to Record Their Use of the Most Toxic Pesticides
Civil Eats
The USDA’s decision to drop rules requiring farmers to record the use of toxic pesticides is a step backward for public health and environmental safety. Transparent data helps scientists, lawmakers, and communities mitigate risks and promote safer alternatives. Without it, addressing pesticide-related issues becomes even harder.
EPA Defunds Research Into PFAS Contamination on Farms
Civil Eats
The EPA has canceled over $15 million in grants dedicated to studying PFAS contamination on farms. This defunding hampers efforts to understand and mitigate PFAS exposure in agriculture, posing risks to both farmers and consumers.
Judge orders wildlife service to do more to protect imperiled species from pesticides
The New Lede
Pesticide exposure doesn’t impact everyone equally. Vulnerable populations, including low-income communities and farmworkers, often bear the brunt of its health risks. This issue extends to wildlife, as recent court rulings highlight the failure to protect endangered species from pesticide harm. Addressing these systemic inequities requires equitable policies that prioritize both human health and ecological balance.
Proposed bill could ban certain pesticides with PFAS chemicals in Maryland
CBS News Baltimore
Check out CBS Baltimore‘s coverage of our efforts to phase out PFAS in Maryland pesticides. These “forever chemicals” are everywhere, and it’s time to reduce their impact on Maryland’s communities. Watch the segment and check the comments to see how you can support it with a click of a button!
MD lawmakers consider bill to ban ‘forever chemicals’ in pesticides
WMAR-2 News
PFAS pesticides are a human rights and environmental justice issue in Maryland. These “forever chemicals” pollute our air, water, and soil, disproportionately impacting vulnerable communities. Maryland Pesticide Education Network is leading efforts to phase out these toxic pesticides. Watch WMAR-2 News Baltimore coverage of our bill hearing to see how we’re working to protect Maryland’s health and environment.
Why Are Pesticide Companies Fighting State Laws to Address PFAS?
Civil Eats
For over 30 years, MPEN has been a leading voice in protecting Marylanders from the risks of pesticides. As Civil Eats highlights, we’re taking on PFAS contamination—a toxic “forever chemical” linked to serious health risks. While Maine leads the way in PFAS bans, Maryland is striving to keep pace despite industry pushback. MPEN’s commitment to public health and environmental safety has never been stronger. Learn more about the fight against PFAS-pesticides and why state action matter.
Victory! Federal Court Strikes Down Lax GMO Rules, Halts GE Crop Introductions Without USDA Oversight
Center for Food Safety
Big news! A federal court has struck down lax GMO regulations, halting the introduction of genetically engineered (GE) crops without proper USDA oversight. This decision protects farmers from harmful pesticide drift, safeguards endangered species, and curbs reckless agricultural practices. Together, we’re moving toward a healthier and more accountable food system. Let’s celebrate this victory for our health and planet!
Pesticide-related PAC money surges into state legislatures as companies seek to limit damage awards in court
U.S. Right to Know
Pesticide companies are increasingly funneling money into state-level politics, with PAC contributions from Bayer and Corteva soaring since 2016. This year alone, 30% of their political donations targeted state candidates, up from just 5% eight years ago. Legislators across key states, including California, New Jersey, and Texas, are receiving contributions, often favoring those involved in agricultural or environmental policy. What’s at stake? Legislation that could impact pesticide labeling, consumer protection, and the liability of these companies.
Clarity needed over glyphosate misbranding at state, fed levels
South Dakota Searchlight
Bayer’s fight over Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, has taken another turn. With ongoing lawsuits and claims that the company failed to warn consumers about cancer risks, the debate now sits with the U.S. Supreme Court. This follows years of conflicting rulings, all centered on whether Bayer violated pesticide labeling laws under FIFRA. The outcome could reshape how pesticide labels address health risks—and have lasting implications beyond agriculture.
Environmentalists prevail in lawsuit over feds’ grasshopper suppression program
Courthouse News Service
Does it concern you that Maryland may not be using safer alternatives?
The Center for Biological Diversity won a lawsuit against a federal program allowing insecticide spraying on millions of acres in 17 western states.
“Conservationists accused the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of not considering alternatives to the widespread use of pesticides that killed native insects and contaminated critical habitats.”
LA Council committee moves synthetic grass ban proposal forward
CBS News
A Los Angeles City Council committee is moving toward calling for a ban on synthetic grass citywide, for environmental & health reasons – especially because PFAS is often found in the turf
Pesticide Free Towns Taking Hold Worldwide with Growth in Europe
Beyond Pesticides
Several dozen European towns — most recently the Hungarian city of Törökbálint — have joined the European Pesticide-Free Towns Network, committing to ban pesticides in public and (in some cases) private areas and to promote biodiversity.
Montreal bans use of toxic pesticides on golf courses on its territory
Montreal Gazette
An exemption for municipal golf courses allowing them to keep using toxic pesticides will be lifted in 2025, Montreal announced Thursday.
EPA Misleads Public on PFAS Agricultural Harm
The New Lede
EPA documents indicate the agency may have presented false information to the public about testing for harmful per-and-polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in pesticides, according to allegations being made by a watchdog group and a former EPA research fellow.
Maryland Advances Legislation on PFAS in Pesticides
Maryland Pesticide Education Network
This May, Governor Moore signed legislation establishing a 6-month three-agency study to research & verify currently existing testing methods for PFAS in pesticides used in Maryland. This wouldn’t have been possible without the huge support this bill had received from all of you!
Enforcement Rules for Organic Standards Far Surpass Those in Chemical-Intensive Agriculture
Beyond Pesticides
New USDA requirements in the Strengthening Organic Enforcement Rule aim to strengthen the integrity of the National Organic Program through both enhanced oversight and enforcement of existing program regulations, and the introduction of new ones to address occurrences of fraud in the organic supply
Mexico is phasing out imports of glyphosate and GMO corn. Supporters say that could reverse years of damage from U.S. trade policy.
The Counter
An order by Mexico’s president calls for the phase-out by 2024 of 2 pillars of American agribusiness.
More Than 100 Organizations Call for Expeditious Action to Ban Chlorpyrifos
Human Rights Watch
A letter to the US EPA urging the agency to go back to EPA’s plan to ban chlorpyrifos.
“The undersigned 101 farmworker, public health, environmental, labor, and faith organizations urge the EPA to immediately revoke all food tolerances for chlorpyrifos and initiate the cancellation process to end all uses of this neurotoxic pesticide.”
Five states sue EPA over rule limiting pesticide safety enforcement
The Hill
Maryland’s AG joined with four other states to sue Trump’s EPA for weakening farmworker protections from pesticides.
Farmworkers left behind by broken labor and disaster aid systems
Southerly Mag
Unfair labor laws just got worse
In the 1930s, agriculture was excluded from federal labor laws in a process now known as agricultural exceptionalism. In 2020, the Trump administration pushed for more H-2A farmworker visas during the pandemic claiming it was necessary to ensure ample food supply. But the administration also proposed a decrease in already low farmworker wages.
Roadmap points Europe toward safer, sustainable chemicals
Environmental Health News
Bravo! European Union for releasing its ambitious strategy for getting hormone-disrupting chemicals–including pesticides–out of food, products & packaging
FDA must do more to regulate thousands of chemicals added to your food, petitioners say
CCN
Some 10,000 chemicals–including pesticides and endocrine disruptors–are allowed to be added to our foods. American Academy of Pediatrics warns that chemical exposures can lower a baby’s IQ.
New Roundup cancer trial starting in California
US Right to Know
“Lawyers representing a woman suffering from cancer are prepared to face off against Monsanto and its German owner Bayer AG in a California courtroom on Monday in what is set as the fourth trial over allegations Monsanto’s popular Roundup weed killers cause non-Hodgkin lymphoma”.
German cabinet approves legislation to ban glyphosate from 2024
Reuters
“Farmers in Germany will have to gradually reduce their use of glyphosate and stop using it completely from 2024 in order to preserve clean habitats for insects, under draft legislation passed by the country’s cabinet on Wednesday”
Revealed: Monsanto owner and US officials pressured Mexico to drop glyphosate ban
The Guardian
“Internal government emails reveal Monsanto owner Bayer AG and industry lobbyist CropLife America have been working closely with US officials to pressure Mexico into abandoning its intended ban on glyphosate” and so far, it’s not working.
Maryland pediatrician, medical toxicologist and Emery School of Medicine professor emeritus Lorne Garrettson urges Montgomery Co. to stop its use of glyphosate
Washington Post
This Op-ed is by Lorne Garrettson and is advocating for Montgomery County, MD to stop using glyphosate in its parks.
“Amid a pandemic, protecting people’s health has become a value and priority.”
Op-ed: The reckless embrace of banned pesticides in the US
Environmental Health News
The EPA is at a crossroads given how widely banned pesticides have been embraced across the US and in this Op-ed such widespread use is discussed and critiqued.
Philly parks are going organic with ban on synthetic weed-killers
The WHYY
Maryland cites and counties take heed: Philly parks are going organic with a ban on synthetic weedkillers.
EPA reapproves dozens of ultra-toxic pesticides
Center for Biological Diversity
“Some of World’s Most Dangerous Pesticides OK’d Despite Incomplete Assessments, Evidence of Far-ranging Harms to People, Protected Wildlife”
The U.S. still uses many pesticides banned in other countries
Investigate Midwest
Some 150 agricultural pesticides the UN World Health Organization considers hazardous to human health are used in the USA.
EPA forced to study glyphosate, finds pesticide could injure or kill 93% of endangered species
Center for Biological Diversity
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a draft biological evaluation last week finding that glyphosate is likely to injure or kill 93% of the plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act.
EPA questions science linking widely used pesticide to brain damage in children
The Hill
The move could enable years of continued use of the dangerous pesticide.
Fraud in German laboratory casts doubt on 2017 EU re-approval of glyphosate
Sustainable Pulse
A new study has found that a German toxicology lab committed fraud in a series of regulatory tests that led to the European Union’s controversial re-approval of this cancer-causing pesticide for use in Europe.
New York bans brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos
Earthjustice
“Victory – Chorpyrifos, linked to intellectual disabilities in children, will be phased out by 2021”
Chemicals on our food: When “safe” may not really be safe
Environmental Health News
Toxicologist Linda Birnbaum, who directs the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), has called for “an overall reduction in the use of agricultural pesticides” due to multiple concerns for human health, stating that “existing US regulations have not kept pace with scientific advances showing that widely used chemicals cause serious health problems at levels previously assumed to be safe.