Pesticides & Soil Health Congressional Briefing

When: {Nov 30^th, Dec 1^st or Dec 2^nd at noon EST}

Friends of the Earth, Center of Biological Diversity, and {insert other sponsors} will hold a briefing on soil health and pesticides on {insert date}. We will share the results from a recent peer-reviewed study that shows that pesticides widely used in American agriculture pose a grave threat to organisms that are critical to healthy soil, biodiversity, and soil carbon sequestration to fight climate change. The study is the first comprehensive review of the impacts of pesticides on soil invertebrates such as earthworms, beetles, and ground nesting bees.

The briefing will enhance understanding of soil health, discuss its vulnerability to pesticides, and highlight important implications for policy, including:

• Ensuring that regenerative agriculture programs and policies address pesticide reduction – As the concept of regenerative agriculture gains momentum in federal policy, these findings shine a light on why it’s critical to reduce use of toxic pesticides to achieve truly regenerative farming systems.
• Advancing organic agriculture – Organic farmers manage farming systems without the use of harmful pesticides, and data demonstrate that they are able to achieve improved soil health outcomes including increased soil carbon sequestration and greater resilience in the face of droughts and floods.
• Incorporating soil health into EPA risk assessments – Soil organisms are currently not accounted for in the EPA risk assessment process for pesticides; the EPA significantly underestimates risk to soil organisms by using a species that spends its entire life above ground as a proxy – the European honey bee.
• Addressing pesticides as a major driver of insect declines, which threatens food security – These findings build on existing evidence that pesticides are contributing to widespread declines of insects. Soils are one of the most complex and biodiverse ecosystems on earth, containing nearly a quarter of the planet’s species. Protecting soil organisms is critical to many ecosystem functions, including our ability to feed ourselves and future generations.

Speakers 

• Nathan Donley, PhD, Senior Scientist at Center for Biological Diversity
• Aditi Dubey, PhD, University of Maryland
• Rudy Arredondo, President, National Latino Farmers and Ranchers Association
• Patti Naylor, Iowa organic farmer, National Family Farm Coalition member

Facilitated by Kendra Klein, PhD, Senior Scientist at Friends of the Earth