US Fish and Wildlife Service

June 7, 2023

Advocacy groups sue EPA after agency re-approved two highly toxic weed killers

By Shannon Kelleher

Environmental and workers’ rights groups this week filed a lawsuit alleging a federal agency failed to properly consider risks to public health and the environment when it re-approved two highly toxic herbicides.

Enlist One and Enlist Duo, which are sprayed on crops across the US, contain chemicals that jeopardize the health of rural communities and farmworkers and threaten hundreds of endangered species, native plants, and local waterways, the groups warn. They also say the products can increase damage to nearby crops and exacerbate the problem of herbicide-resistant weeds. In January 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re-approved the weed killers’ product registrations for seven more years.

“Farmworkers and rural communities are experiencing significant health effects from Enlist herbicides,” said Mily Trevino-Sauceda, Executive Director of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, which advocates for farmworkers’ rights, in a press release. “EPA’s registration decision shows an utter disregard for public health.”

In their complaint, the Center for Food Safety, Pesticide Action Network North America, and Alianza Nacional de Campesinas allege that the agency violated both the the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) when it re-approved the herbicides, understating the chemicals’ dangers and neglecting to consult the US Fish and Wildlife Service before moving forward.

“We’re asking the court to order EPA to properly consider the risks before approving these two harmful herbicides and to consult with the expert wildlife agencies,” said Kristina Sinclair, an attorney with the Center for Food Safety.

The groups are asking the Court to halt the use and sale of the herbicides until EPA complies with federal law and are calling for “relief as necessary to redress any harm to wildlife and the environment caused by EPA’s registration decisions,” the complaint states.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service issued a draft biological opinion just last month, almost a year and a half after the EPA re-approved the herbicides. The document suggests the Enlist herbicides “are not likely to jeopardize any listed species or adversely modify their critical habitats.”

January 20, 2023

US politics complicates bid to protect nature

By Shannon Kelleher

It’s been a month since the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) ended with a historic international agreement aimed at expanding efforts to protect and preserve land, water and ecosystems around the globe.

Now the more than 190 countries that approved the ambitious plan to protect 30% of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030 – among other goals- are faced with how to turn their promises into political realities.

In the United States, efforts to counteract the extinction crisis must contend with a unique set of challenges. Not only did the US sit on the sidelines at COP15, declining to join in the agreement, but newly strengthened Republican forces in Congress signal that progress on protecting nature won’t come easy.

Last year, Republican congressmembers introduced the “30 x 30 Termination Act,” which would overturn a Biden Administration’s conservation plan very similar to a target in the Global Biodiversity Framework adopted at COP15. Republicans call the plan a “land grab.” While the act has so far failed to pass, Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado plans to reintroduce it now that Republicans control the US House of Representatives.

The situation at the federal level has environmental advocates worried.

“We’re not playing at the international level and we’re not taking [the extinction crisis] seriously on our own soil,” said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.

But even as politics threaten to hold conservation progress captive at the national scale, states, tribes, and local communities across the US are ramping up their own conservation efforts to confront the nation’s extinction crisis.

August 30, 2022

Citing “irreversible harm,” lawmaker introduces bill to ban class of pesticides

By Carey Gillam

US Rep. Nydia Velazquez on Tuesday introduced a bill that would ban organophosphates in food production, citing harm to children, farmworkers and other vulnerable communities exposed to the group of chemicals.

“The science has been clear for decades: this type of pesticide is a dangerous neurological threat to farmworkers and our children,” Velázquez said in a statement. “These pesticides during early life have been shown to lead to irreversible harm to the developing brain, which can result in long-term effects like attention disorders, autism, and reduced IQ.”

The move is the latest in a series of actions aimed at reducing US pesticide use, and comes as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is evaluating continued use of organophosphates, which commonly leave residues in finished food products.

Pesticide manufacturers and agricultural industry groups oppose a ban. A coalition of more than two dozen such groups sent a letter to the EPA in late July, arguing that organophosphates act as an “essential tool” for managing insect pests.

“The continued availability of this group of pesticides is important to US growers due the safety and effectiveness of these proven pesticides,” the coalition said in the letter.

The EPA recently banned food uses of a type of organophosphate called chlorpyrifos, an insecticide popular with farmers but shown by scientific research to cause neurodevelopmental harm to children. Critics say there are more than a dozen other organophosphates that should be similarly banned.