Mission: Pesticide Action Network North America works to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives. As one of five PAN Regional Centers worldwide, we link local and international consumer, labor, health, environment and agriculture groups into an international citizens’ action network. This network challenges the global proliferation of pesticides,defends basic rights to health and environmental quality, and works to ensure the transition to a just and viable society.
Results: • Carcinogenic strawberry pesticide blocked — On March 20, together with a coalition of partners in California and across the nation, we won a six-year campaign to block methyl iodide when its maker, Arysta LifeScience, the largest privately held pesticide company in the world, pulled the fumigant off the entire U.S. market.
• Documenting and reducing exposure to airborne pesticides in the U.S. (through community-based partnerships in California, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Washington and other states and a national campaign that led to substantial new restrictions on hazardous fumigants);
• Eliminating persistent pesticides worldwide, including endosulfan in April 2011, primarily through advocating addition of pesticides to the Stockholm Convention's list of chemicals to be phased out internationally; and
• Promoting smaller-scale, ecological farming to feed the world. PAN staff were lead authors in the April 2008 UN International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development.
Programs: Rolling back corporate influence; protecting children from exposure to pesticides; and promoting food democracy.
I am very interested in agricultural issues and have been following PANNA for some time. I'm impressed by their activism on critical issues, but most of all by their science-based approach. They are among the handful of groups I most respect.
Robert Branstrom, Ph.D.
This organization doesn't focus only on local issues--they care about not just Americans but about the welfare of people all over the world. Their vision is the big picture. Ultimately, it's sustainability--how the production of food and the use of pesticides has to be addressed with long-term goals in mind, not short-term profits. I am happy to support this organization achieve their goals.
