Why don't The bugs bite your apples? It’s a funny question with a serious answer—Americans want inexpensive, perfect-looking fruit and vegetables, and pesticides do the trick. But those good looks come at the expense of farmworkers who wade through fields soaked with toxic pesticides to pick what we eat. Each year, 10,000 to 20,000 farmworkers and their families contract acute pesticide poisoning, according to the federal government. They suffer stinging eyes, rashes, blisters, nausea, headaches and even death. Long-term impacts include infertility, birth defects, endocrine disruption, neurological disorders and cancer. You can help end this travesty by joining with us in demanding stronger worker protections. Our target is the weak and outdated Worker Protection Standard, which is meant to safeguard farmworkers but hasn’t been revised for more than 20 years despite overwhelming evidence of its inadequacy. Act with us in calling on the EPA to strengthen the Worker Protection Standard by: -- Providing more frequent and more comprehensible pesticide safety training for farmworkers -- Ensuring that workers receive information about specific pesticides used in their work -- Requiring safety precautions and protective equipment limiting farmworkers’ contact with pesticides -- Requiring medical monitoring of workers who handle neurotoxic pesticides Workers in other sectors of industry are protected from hazardous chemicals, but not farmworkers. Let’s restore their right to a healthy environment!

The Oregon Department of Forestry, acting under the Oregon Forest Practices Act, continues to issue permits to spray herbicides over replanted clear cuts even when the land to be sprayed are clearly defined watersheds used by public water districts for drinking water. Other forest practices such as manual brush cutting are effective, but private forest managers are not required by law to use these alternative methods so some continue to spray. This is a flaw in the Oregon law and places citizens unnecessarily at risk. The Oregon Forest Practices Act should be amended immediately in special session. There is no effective way for water districts or the public water consumers in these small Oregon communities to assure non-degredation of their drinking water, in the face of direct herbicide applications to our watersheds.

Now more than ever, the United States needs a policy for genetically engineered food labeling: there are genetically engineered foods in up to 70 percent of the foods on grocery store shelves, the USDA is considering approving a genetically engineered apple this spring, and the FDA is nearing its approval of a genetically engineered salmon. The labeling of genetically engineered foods should be mandatory. The public has the right to make an informed choice about the food they buy for their families. Without mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods, consumers are left in the dark. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has sponsored new federal labeling legislation, the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (S. 809), in the Senate. Take action and tell Senators Burr (R-NC) and Hagan (D-NC) to support the genetically engineered food labeling bill.

Now more than ever, the United States needs a policy for genetically engineered food labeling: there are genetically engineered foods in up to 70 percent of the foods on grocery store shelves, the USDA is considering approving a genetically engineered apple this spring, and the FDA is nearing its approval of a genetically engineered salmon. The labeling of genetically engineered foods should be mandatory. The public has the right to make an informed choice about the food they buy for their families. Without mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods, consumers are left in the dark. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has sponsored new federal labeling legislation, the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (S. 809), in the Senate. Take action and tell Senators Kaine (D-VA) and Warner (D-VA) to support the genetically engineered food labeling bill.

Now more than ever, the United States needs a policy for genetically engineered food labeling: there are genetically engineered foods in up to 70 percent of the foods on grocery store shelves, the USDA is considering approving a genetically engineered apple this spring, and the FDA is nearing its approval of a genetically engineered salmon. The labeling of genetically engineered foods should be mandatory. The public has the right to make an informed choice about the food they buy for their families. Without mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods, consumers are left in the dark. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has sponsored new federal labeling legislation, the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (S. 809), in the Senate. Take action and tell Senators Brown (D-OH) and Portman (R-OH) to support the genetically engineered food labeling bill.

Now more than ever, the United States needs a policy for genetically engineered food labeling: there are genetically engineered foods in up to 70 percent of the foods on grocery store shelves, the USDA is considering approving a genetically engineered apple this spring, and the FDA is nearing its approval of a genetically engineered salmon. The labeling of genetically engineered foods should be mandatory. The public has the right to make an informed choice about the food they buy for their families. Without mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods, consumers are left in the dark. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has sponsored new federal labeling legislation, the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (S. 809), in the Senate. Take action and tell Senators Levin (D-MI) and Stabenow (D-MI) to support the genetically engineered food labeling bill.

Now more than ever, the United States needs a policy for genetically engineered food labeling: there are genetically engineered foods in up to 70 percent of the foods on grocery store shelves, the USDA is considering approving a genetically engineered apple this spring, and the FDA is nearing its approval of a genetically engineered salmon. The labeling of genetically engineered foods should be mandatory. The public has the right to make an informed choice about the food they buy for their families. Without mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods, consumers are left in the dark. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has sponsored new federal labeling legislation, the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (S. 809), in the Senate. Take action and tell Senators Nelson (D-FL) and Rubio (R-FL) to support the genetically engineered food labeling bill.

Now more than ever, the United States needs a policy for genetically engineered food labeling: there are genetically engineered foods in up to 70 percent of the foods on grocery store shelves, the USDA is considering approving a genetically engineered apple this spring, and the FDA is nearing its approval of a genetically engineered salmon. The labeling of genetically engineered foods should be mandatory. The public has the right to make an informed choice about the food they buy for their families. Without mandatory labeling of genetically engineered foods, consumers are left in the dark. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has sponsored new federal labeling legislation, the Genetically Engineered Food Right to Know Act (S. 809), in the Senate. Take action and tell Senators Durbin (D-IL) and Kirk (R-IL) to support the genetically engineered food labeling bill.

The ill-named Domestic Energy Production Protection Act would require mandatory Congressional approval of all major EPA rules, bogging down the EPA’s ability to get its work done. Ask your Representative to stick up for EPA’s ability to create life-saving, health protecting air pollution standards without having to go through a dysfunctional Congress.

The USFW is trying to de-list federally protected wolves which are only about 15% reintroduced to their former habitat range, breaking the mission statement and purpose of the Endangered Species Act. One of the main mitigating factors the USFW cites is the "human intolerance" towards wolves. This said intolerance is the job of the USFW and ESA to remedy. Killing wolves because of "human intolerance" weakens the ESA and opens up trophy hunting to all endangered species hunters deem "human intolerant".

Paraquat is the most toxic herbicide developed in the last 60 years. It shouldn't be used in residential areas.

An Associated Press story reported that oil companies have been fracking off our coasts for years and basically no one in California, including the California Coastal Commission, knew about it. What’s even more egregious, federal regulations exempt fracking wastewater from clean water laws, so oil companies have been dumping this toxic, chemical-laden wastewater right back into the ocean -- right in areas where blue and humpback whales congregate. We need the EPA and Department of the Interior to step in and protect the Pacific and its wildlife from dangerous fracking. The wastewater contains chemicals that are “toxins to fish larvae and crustaceans, bottom dwellers most at risk from drilling activities, according to government health disclosure documents detailing some of the fluids used off California's shore”. Seven California legislators just sent a letter to the EPA and Department of the Interior calling for new regulations for fracking in the seabed.