1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Today I take pen in hand to write and urge you to continue to oppose and press for removal of several Republican provisions in the draft Farm Bill, namely overturning state regulations on harmful pesticides and shielding pesticide producers from litigation. These are health and safety issues not just for consumers, but for agricultural workers and even employers of those workers. Basically companies like Bayer are attempting to rewrite the laws to their advantage, while continuing to profit off risky pesticides used in agriculture, and shield them from prosecution. This is unacceptable. The American Association for Justice has made careful examination of the language contained in the Farm Bill, and agrees with other reports by lawmakers: “This is an effort to not only cut off the ability of farmers, farmworkers, and groundskeepers to hold the companies accountable, it’s an effort to prevent the public from ever learning about the dangers in the first place.” Basically Bayer and other companies are using Republicans from farming states as their conduit for imposing industry views on what safety is. Tell them to get lost, and fight to remove these provisions and language. We’ve had enough ‘deregulation’ that only makes people less safety all through the food chain. Other language, like mischaracterizing dangerous chemicals like dicamba, paraquat and others must also be removed from the Farm Bill. It’s clear why industry wants no accountability: They’ve spent decades covering up the harm their products have wrought on people, the food chain, wildlife and the environment in general. We can’t even rid ourselves of the decades of pollution by these companies, and now we’re asked to allow them to make it legal to pollute and add more toxins into our food chain? Enough. At the same time, the Farm Bill as it stands could severely impact the ability of states to regulate and litigate on pesticides. California is the largely agricultural state in the union, and actually feeds people, not hogs and cows like others. I’m very worried about the side effects that these Republican provisions will have on our own state to keep farmers and workers safe, as well as those of us that consume the produce. There’s also the SNAP reductions and making it more difficult to apply and receive SNAP. Those must go as well. In short, continue to oppose these provisions in the current version of the farm bill. We are what we eat, and we need healthy food chains to ensure that medical issues don’t continue to plague us well into the next generation. Thank you.