We're Stepping Up Where the MAHA Commission Failed

With the release of the MAHA Commission’s strategy report containing ZERO concrete policy or steps to improve pesticide regulation and oversight, it’s clear we need a MASSIVE grassroots push to convince the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to take IMMEDIATE action to curtail the use of toxic pesticides like glyphosate in order to protect farmworkers, our communities, public health, and the environment.

Can you send a message to Lee Zeldin (EPA Administrator) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (HHS Secretary) today? We’ve already written it for you!

Our message demands immediate action on glyphosate, the world's most widely used pesticide with over 300 million pounds applied annually in the US. Since 2022, glyphosate has lacked a valid, legal human health assessment after our lawsuit led to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturning the EPA's safety determination, finding the agency failed to adequately consider cancer risks and endangered species impacts, yet EPA still allows it to be sprayed.

We're calling on EPA to respond to our pending 2023 cancellation petition and either heavily restrict or ban glyphosate until proper safety assessments are completed, while urging HHS to use its jurisdiction to fund research on glyphosate's health effects and ensure stricter enforcement of food contamination limits. 

Message to EPA & HHS:

Dear Secretary Kennedy and Administrator Zeldin, 

I write to you today as an American deeply concerned with our food system’s overuse of toxic pesticides, especially the notorious glyphosate, and demand immediate action to stop the use of this chemical in our food system. 

Glyphosate is the most widely used pesticide in the world, with over 300 million pounds applied annually in the United States. As it stands, it has no valid human health assessment and has not since 2022 when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) decision that glyphosate is safe for humans and imperiled wildlife. The Court found the Trump administration's 2020 interim registration of glyphosate to be unlawful because "EPA did not adequately consider whether glyphosate causes cancer and shirked its duties under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)." Despite this, the EPA has not acted to alleviate the damage inflicted by glyphosate’s pervasive use and continues to allow its application. Glyphosate remains registered despite no demonstration by EPA that it can meet the required Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Safety Act (FIFRA) safety standard for this herbicide’s currently approved uses. 

 In 2023, the Center for Food Safety and partner organizations submitted a cancellation petition to EPA to immediately suspend and cancel all glyphosate registrations due to it lacking a legal safety assessment. This petition is yet to receive a response and should be acted upon immediately. I implore the EPA to take immediate action to heavily restrict or ban the use of glyphosate until a valid human health assessment is available, and to set stricter limits on allowable levels of glyphosate in our food. 

Furthermore, despite Secretary Kennedy’s MAHA Report identifying glyphosate as a contributor to the childhood chronic disease crisis, the MAHA Strategy Report contains no concrete policies or recommendations to address this issue. Therefore, I urge the HHS to use its jurisdiction to fund research to further study the effects of glyphosate on human health and our soil microbiome, to ensure accurate and transparent tracking of glyphosate levels in food, and to work closely with the EPA to ensure the EPA's limits on glyphosate levels in food are enforced.  

Thank you for your attention to this critical issue.

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