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First Word

Monica Moore (left) recieves the “Advocate for Social Justice Award” from Ecological Farming Association board member Professor Julie Guthman Monica Moore (left) recieves the “Advocate for Social Justice Award” from Ecological Farming Association board member Professor Julie Guthman

This is a watershed year for PAN North America. PAN’s 25th anniversary year finds us facilitating community-based science and policy changes; organizing strategic networks to eliminate key deadly pesticides; promoting ecologically sound, socially just alternatives; and working more closely than ever with our international partners on issues ranging from DDT and malaria, to convincing governments and the UN to increase support for ecologically based agriculture—and so much more.

For my part, I am honored to have been named by the PAN North America board as the interim Executive Director as Monica Moore and Steve Scholl-Buckwald finish their 15-year partnership as co-directors and move into new roles in PAN’s advocacy and management.

Highlights from my first months as ED include a cozy banquet on the California coast with some 400 organic farmers and sustainable agriculture advocates at the annual Eco-Farm conference. We gathered to support and “push the envelope” in organic farming, by sharing field techniques, celebrating our core commitments, and honoring those whose hard work helps create food systems free from toxic pesticides. And I was there when PAN’s co-founder, Monica Moore, received the Ecological Farming Association’s Justie Award and a standing ovation, in recognition of PAN’s contributions to the promotion of social justice in agriculture.

Over the past year, I’ve heard countless stories from network partners about Monica’s positive impact in their work and on people’s lives. I can’t begin to describe the combination of wisdom, intelligence, passion, commitment, humor and generosity that Monica embodies, and the contributions she has made in the building of PAN over 25 years. The clearest evidence of all this is found in the creativity, dedication and teamwork of PANNA’s remarkable staff, including Steve as managing director, our truly amazing scientists, campaigners, communications specialists, office staff, board members and network partners. These are folks who make PAN North America tick, and who, with your active support, regularly win important struggles in service to our larger mission. I am both proud and humbled to be part of an organization that stands for justice, health and communities—locally and globally.

Thank you so much for your interest in PAN’s work. I hope to engage you even more fully as we create the stories of the next 25 years together. And I look forward to the day that we look back on the significant changes that we’ve leveraged—and on work filled with integrity and passion, with truth and justice.


Kathryn Gilje, Executive Director

 

News

Pan Fights Renewed Push for DDTWorld Health Organization officials continue to promote a controversial plan to fight malaria in Africa by encouraging the spraying of the banned pesticide DDT inside people’s homes. PAN notes that there are more affordable means of malaria prevention, such as mosquito-blocking bed-nets.

Morton Grove Bullies OpponentsMorton Grove Pharmaceuticals (one of the few companies still distributing products containing the pesticide lindane) has initiated yet another lawsuit. This time, the target is a small, 25-year-old nonprofit dedicated to protecting children’s health

Last-ditch Try to Pass GOP’s POPs Bill FailsActivist pressure helped defeat GOP Representative Paul Gillmor’s last-minute attempt to undercut a landmark international treaty intended to achieve a global phase-out persistent organic pollutants(POPs).

PAN Gathers for Global Strategy Meeting in RioIn November 2006, for the first time, leaders from all five PAN regions met in Brazil. The goal: to plan joint campaigns to combat the global corporate agricultural system that promotes synthetic pesticides, controls food production and distribution, and damages human health and the environment.

New Organophosphates Campaign Targets ChlorpyrifosPAN has mobilized farmworkers, environmental health, and social justice groups to launch a new campaign aimed at eliminating the most hazardous organophosphate pesticides. The Organophosphate Alternatives Alliance’s initial targets include chlorpyrifos, azinphos-methyl, diazinon, dichlorvos, malathion and phosmet.

Verdict in Basel: Syngenta Judged ‘Guilty’On February 8, 2007, Syngenta posted record profits—in part due to the merciless marketing of its toxic pesticide, paraquat. That same day, activists gathered in the street outside the company’s Basel headquarters and released their own report—a survey of 50,000 concerned individuals that found Syngenta “Guilty” of profiteering from poison.

Drift-Catcher Training Draws Activists from Far and Near In February, 15 activists from California, Florida, Maine, Minnesota, Washington, and the Philippines concluded an intensive four-day “Train the Trainers” workshop to learn how to train others to use PAN’s pesticide-detecting “Drift Catcher” and how to mobilize the public to demand that chemicals be removed from the air we breathe.

AffiliatesThis issue we salute the Saskatchewan Network for Alternatives to Pesticides and Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Services.

Features

PAN to EPA: Phase Out FumigantsFour toxic fumigant pesticides—chloropicrin, methyl bromide, methyl isothiocyanate and telone—are in the final evaluation stage of the EPA’s Fumigant Cluster Assessment review. Public hearings will give concerned citizens the chance to tell EPA to start protecting human health from dangerous chemicals and stop taking the lead from the chemical industry.s.

Federal Scientists Protest White House Meddling In September 2006, the Bush administration stripped 170,000 federal scientists of whistleblower protection using an “unpublished opinion” from the Attorney General’s Office that granted George W. Bush “sovereign immunity.” EPA and FDA scientists and their unions are standing up to these attacks, with support from progressive members of the 110th Congress.

Meeting the Farmers behind Brazil’s Land-rights Battles Since its founding, the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra has forced the Bralizian government to redistribute 20 million acres of agricultural land.
In the village of Seropedica, PAN’s global team had the honor of meeting several courageous farmers who had struggled for more than ten years to gain access to their land.

Poisons on the Wind: Drift-catching in Washington StateIn the spring of 2006, farmworker families in two Yakima Valley locations tested the air with “Drift Catchers”—inexpensive, air-monitors designed by PAN chemist Dr. Susan Kegley. The air samples tested positive for chlorpyifos—the key ingredient in Lorsban.

Solutions

Spread the News: Mustard Can Drive Away PestsAcross the Pacific Northwest, a movement is afoot to reduce synthetic chemical fumigants in the production of the region’s massive potato crop. In a region where farmers once stockpiled barrels of toxic ethylene dibromide, farmers are now learning to fight pests with meadows of mustard.

Getting your Fill at Full Belly FarmCalifornia’s Full Belly Farm, near Sacramento, is a well-established organic farm known for its quality produce, its innovative marketing, and its progressive employee relations. “There are plenty of organic vegetable farms struggling in Northern California,” the Rodale Institute notes, but “none has it together like Full Belly.”

PAN’s Non-pesticide AdvisorChemical-free alternatives for an ant emergency.

Help YourselfResources for a better world.

Last Word Anna Marie Carter, the “Seed Lady of Watts,” plants seeds of hope in South Central LA.