Contact your Senators today: Demand that they oppose attacks on our food system in the Farm Bill!

The House Farm Bill will allow pesticides to be sprayed directly into our drinking water. It weakens endangered and threatened species protections from toxic pesticides. And it prevents states and cities from passing new local policies banning toxic chemicals like bee-killing neonicotinoids and Monsanto’s Roundup®.

We can’t afford to continue to allow Big Ag to destroy our environment and threaten public health. We need to make sure that the Senate stands strong and doesn’t negotiate with the House over their destructive Farm Bill.

Dear Senator,

As a constituent, I am writing to express my deep disappointment that you voted YES and supported the Farm Bill. The Senate Bill continues to prop up destructive, chemical-intensive industrial agriculture. However, I am pleased that the Senate Farm Bill secured support for pollinators, conservation programs and local and organic agriculture. As the bill moves to conference committee, I urge you to conserve these critical provisions of the Senate Farm Bill and not negotiate with the House over their poisonous Farm Bill. The House Farm Bill is disastrous for our health, the environment and rolls back critical environmental and public health safeguards. The bill prioritizes pesticide companies over the health and safety of the American people. I urge you to work with your colleagues in the Senate to reject the House version of the bill and maintain the positive provisions of the Senate bill.

In the House bill, I am particularly concerned with a number of provisions that would increase toxic pesticide use and curtail important environmental law. These concerns include the following:

•	The House Farm Bill eliminates a requirement that requires EPA under the Endangered Species Act to consult with expert federal wildlife agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, when approving chemicals that can harm threatened and endangered species. 
•	The House Farm Bill allows companies to spray pesticides into our waterways without even obtaining a Clean Water Act permit -- even if these are sources of drinking water or places where we swim and fish. The Clean Water Act permit is short and simple to obtain. Current law already allows pesticide applicators to spray in the event of a public health emergency before asking for a permit. The bill would remove all meaningful oversight for pesticide spraying and gut critical safeguards that protect our waterways and communities from excessive pesticide pollution for the sake of pesticide manufacturers and other special interests. 
•	The House Farm Bill would roll back the policies over 100 communities across the country have passed that restrict the use of toxic pesticides. This bill overturns decades of rulings and achieves a long goal of chemical corporations because it prevents communities from tailoring laws to restrict and protect themselves from toxic chemicals. 
•	The House Farm Bill would enact the “Pesticide Registration Improvement Act” in a form that provides long-term funding to EPA for expedited processing of pesticide approval applications, without accompanying measures to ensure that farmworkers and other pesticide applicators are safe.
•	The House Farm Bill provides state pesticide regulatory agencies a secret chance to slow or effectively veto EPA pesticide protections before they become public or are even proposed.

The Farm Bill should be an opportunity to ensure every American has access to safe, healthy food without toxic pesticides. It should not be used to get rid of sensible protections that protect us from poison on our food. Moreover, these pesticide riders simply benefit chemical companies.

I urge you to NOT negotiate with the House over this destructive bill and reject any negotiations if this legislation is on the table.

Sincerely,

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