Panetta’s Dirty Donors: Highly hazardous pesticides
Image: Tractor spraying pesticides. Source: Aqua Mechanical.
For the health of us all, we must rapidly phase out the use of all toxic pesticides, but can we trust Jimmy Panetta to push for this in Congress when he has taken over $142,000 from pesticide manufacturers and industrial users?
The UN Environment Programme has made it clear that international pesticide use is damaging ecosystems, driving biodiversity loss, and gravely impacting human health. Our collective wellbeing is particularly threatened by the ongoing use of over 300 pesticides classified as Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs).
In California, where 13% of US food is grown, 191 million pounds of active ingredient fertilizer was applied in 2021. Within this, approximately 2 million pounds of neurotoxic organophosphates (a subset of HPPs) are used each year. The large-scale use of HPPs in California is particularly harmful for pregnant people working in the fields and children living close by to the sprayed fields. Almost 2000 elementary schools in California are within a quarter of a mile from crop fields.
Representative Nydia Velázquez has twice introduced a bill to ban all organophosphate pesticides from use on our food, but Panetta has not actively supported this legislation. Why has Panetta not done more to protect our communities, our soils, and our biodiversity? Probably because some of his largest donors are the users and manufacturers of HPPs.
Pesticide Manufacturers
According to the FEC data, Panetta has received at least $59,500 from international agrochemical companies and their lobbying group, CropLife International. CropLife’s members earn over a third of their profits from pesticides classified as HPPs.
Agrochemical PAC Donations to Panetta
Bayer (owns Monsanto): $6,000
BASF: $12,500
Corteva (formerly DowAgroscience): $10,000
CropLife International: $10,000
Dow Inc: $2000
Dow Agrosciences: $1000
Fertilizer Institute: $4,500
FMC: $8,000
Nutrien: $2,500
Syngenta: $9,500
Total: $66,500
(Table updated Dec 9, 2023)
Pesticide Users
Panetta also receives money from the associations of industrial farmers who use toxic pesticides and are actively lobbying for their continued use.
For example, in 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally banned all uses of the HPP chlorpyrifos on food crops, but the companies who use chlorpyrifos appealed the EPA's decision. On November 2nd of this year, the eighth circuit court of appeals vacated the EPA’s ban. Of the 20 petitioning corporations and associations challenging the EPA ban, 8 of them are donors to Representative Jimmy Panetta. They have collectively given him $76,000.
Pro-Chlorpyrifos Agricultural PACs
American Crystal Sugar Company: $47,000
American Soybean Association: $4,500
American Sugarbeet Growers: $2,000
Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative: $7,000
National Association of Wheat Growers: $3000
National Cotton Council of America: $9,500
United States Beet sugar Association: $3,500
Total: $76,000
And this is just a portion of the donations that Panetta has received from large scale agricultural producers.
Our campaign understands that we cannot take care of our own families without caring for our communities, our soils, and the biodiversity of our ecosystem. This is why we join with scientists, farmers, and community advocates in calling for:
An immediate ban on all organophosphate pesticides.
Phasing out the use of all Highly Hazardous Pesticides globally by 2030.
A swift transition to regenerative agriculture.
This campaign refuses corporate donations because we believe the government should work towards our collective health and well being, not protecting corporate profits.
Join us today!