Target: Brooke Rollins, Secretary of U.S. Department of Agriculture
Goal: Fight for stronger forever chemical bans in pesticides.
PFAS forever chemicals correlated with cancer and a host of other serious health risks are enjoying new life under the new leadership of the Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA), which should be renamed the Environmental Pesticide Agency. The EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention is being headed by a trio with deep links to the pesticide industry that still pumps out PFAS production at an alarming rate. In short order, the EPA has worked to dismantle PFAS disclosure standards and to essentially give these chemicals free rein in drinking water. Further, the agency approved four pesticides for use on crops that will be sold to consumers.
The EPA then approved the pesticide isocycloseram, which has been linked via studies by the EPA itself with reproductive issues, developmental problems in kids, and several types of cancer. But with the EPA approval, this hazard can now be showered over lawns, golf courses, and a host of fruit, vegetable, and grain crops. To make matters worse, these powerful poisons pose an existential threat to the world’s pollinators, as bees can endure the deadly effects simply by collecting pollen. And PFAS are called forever chemicals for a reason: they are notoriously hard to break down in nature or within living organisms.
A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of concerned citizens, many of whom are farmers. Sign the petition below to demand the nation’s agriculture leader honor a promise to take up arms against these insidious dangers.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Rollins,
During a Texas farm tour made as part of the Make America Healthy Again campaign, you listened to concerns from farmers and ranchers about rampant PFAS contamination. Your colleague on this tour, Secretary of Health Robert Kennedy, even stated, “We want to end the production of PFAS. Ultimately, I think that’s what we have to do.”
Yet in the past year of this administration, the exact opposite has occurred. Pesticide industry lobbyists have been installed at the EPA, and no less than five PFAS-infused pesticides have been approved by the agency that is supposed to be tasked with protecting the environment. Meanwhile, the concerns of the agriculture industry about their health and their livelihoods have remained unaddressed. A bailout will not stop the cancer and other hazardous risks the agriculture industry may be inflicting not only on its employees but on the entire consumer base. Nor will a bailout prevent the serious threat posed to the small living organisms that sustain said industry: pollinators.
It is your duty to speak out against these dangers and to be the voice of the hard-working Americans you represent. Take an unequivocal stand, and do everything in our power to stop the cascade of poison onto U.S. farms.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Orhan Akbaba
