October, 29 2014, 01:45pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Expert Contacts: Tiffany Finck-Haynes, Food futures campaigner, (202) 222-0715, tfinckhaynes@foe.org (East Coast) or Lisa Archer, Director, Food and technology program, (202) 222-3145, larcher@foe.org (West Coast)
Communications Contacts: EA Dyson, 202-222-0730, edyson@foe.org or Kate Colwell, 202-222-0744, kcolwell@foe.org
Gardeners Tell Lowe's: Don't be a "Little Shop of Horrors" for Bees
More than a million people ask Lowe’s to stop selling bee-killing pesticides
WASHINGTON
This week, more than 30,000 people across the U.S. and Canada will swarm Lowe's (NYSE:LOW) stores to ask the retailer to not be a "little shop of horrors" for bees and to take bee-killing pesticides off its shelves. Friends of the Earth and allies will also deliver more than one million petition signatures asking Lowe's to give bees treats, not tricks and to eliminate products and plants pre-treated with bee-killing neonicotinoid pesticides. Larger events are planned at Lowe's stores near Washington, D.C., New York City, Philadelphia, Ashland, OR, Windsor, Canada and Ottawa, Canada.
These actions are part of an international campaign asking retailers to stop selling neonicotinoids -- the most widely used class of pesticides in the world -- due to a growing body of science indicating that they are a leading cause of bee declines across the globe. A study released in June revealed that "bee-friendly" garden plants sold at Lowe's and other retailers contain these bee-killing pesticides, with no warning to consumers. Scientists have determined that these insecticides are deadly to birds and to other wildlife, as well.
"The science is clear: neonicotinoid pesticides are a key contributor to bee declines and are harming birds, butterflies and other organisms essential for healthy ecosystems and food production," said Friends of the Earth Food futures campaigner Tiffany Finck-Haynes. "More than a million people are calling on Lowe's to do the right thing and take bee-killing pesticides off its shelves for the sake of bees and our food supply."
In the face of mounting evidence and growing consumer demand, more than a dozen nurseries, landscaping companies and retailers across the U.S., including BJ's Wholesale Club (NYSE: BJ), have taken steps to eliminate bee-harming pesticides from their stores. The UK's top garden retailers, including Homebase, B & Q, and Wickes, voluntarily stopped selling neonicotinoids. Home Depot (NYSE: HD) The world's largest home improvement retailer is requiring its suppliers to label all plants treated with neonicotinoid pesticides by the fourth quarter of 2014 and is working with its suppliers to "find alternative insecticides for protecting live goods and bees." Last week, Whole Foods (NASDAQ: WFM) issued a new product rating system, which identifies pollinator protection as a priority by restricting neonicotinoid pesticides.
"It's time for Lowe's to join its competitors and make a meaningful commitment to get bee-killing pesticides off its shelves," said Lisa Archer, Food and technology program director at Friends of the Earth. "In the meantime, gardeners should plant untreated seeds or choose organic plants for their gardens."
Bees and other pollinators, essential for the two-thirds of the food crops humans eat everyday, are dwindling worldwide. In the past eight years, beekeepers have lost an average of 30 percent of their hives. The European Union has banned several neonicotinoids and cities and states across the U.S. and Canada have passed measures to address the use of these pesticides and protect bees.
Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency released an analysis confirming that neonicotinoid seed treatments offer little or no increase in economic benefit to U.S. soybean production. This analysis further confirms the urgent need to stop the release and use of these pesticides in agriculture and in the marketplace in order to best protect pollinators and the planet.
Last week, the White House announced a delay in its report on pollinators ordered by President Obama in a June 2014 memorandum. The president also charged EPA with assessing the effects of pesticides, including neonicotinoids, on bees and other pollinators within 180 days. EPA announced last week that it would not release a regulatory decision on neonicotinoids before 2016.
In addition, the White House announced last week that some agencies are creating guidelines for creating and maintaining quality pollinator-friendly federal lands. The Council on Environmental Quality released a guidance for new construction, building renovations, landscaping improvements and leasing facilities at federal facilities and on federal lands, which outlines a number of recommendations including that federal lands acquire seeds and plants from nurseries that do not treat these items with systemic insecticides. These guidelines have the potential to increase the demand by the federal government for truly pollinator friendly plants.
This week's deliveries and events are being organized by Friends of the Earth U.S., American Bird Conservancy, Bee Safe Neighborhoods, Beyond Pesticides, Beyond Toxics, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, Ecology Center, Environment Texas, Friends of the Earth Canada, Food and Water Watch, GMO Inside, Maryland Pesticide Network, Mercola.com, Organic Consumers Association, Pesticide Action Network North America, Pollinator Project, Save our Environment, Sum of Us and Toxic Free North Carolina.
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-7400LATEST NEWS
Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," said one advocate.
Apr 17, 2024
While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
"The privacy violations that flow from law enforcement entities circumventing the Fourth Amendment undermine civil liberties, free expression, and our ability to control what happens to our data," said Free Press Action policy counsel Jenna Ruddock. "These impacts affect everyone who uses digital platforms that extract our personal information any time we open a browser or visit social media and other websites—even when we go to events like demonstrations and other places with our phones revealing our locations."
"We're grateful that the House passed these vital and popular protections," she added. "The bill would prevent flagrant abuses of our privacy by government authorities in league with unscrupulous third-party data brokers. Making this legislation into law with Senate passage too would be a decisive and long-overdue action against government misuse of this clandestine business sector that traffics in our personal data for profit."
Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
"As FANFSA and the 702 reauthorization move to the Senate, lawmakers in that chamber need to take a stand for the rights of people in the United States," she argued. "That means passing FANFSA and reforming Section 702 authority—and prioritizing everyone's First and Fourth Amendment rights."
Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
"The passage of the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale underscores the extent to which reining in abusive warrantless surveillance is a bipartisan issue," Scott said. "We urge the Senate to take up this measure and close the data broker loophole."
Kia Hamadanchy, senior policy counsel at ACLU, similarly said Wednesday that "the bipartisan passage of this bill is a flashing warning sign to the government that if it wants our data, it must get a warrant."
Hamadanchy added that "we hope this vote puts a fire under the Senate to protect their constituents and rein in the government's warrantless surveillance of Americans, once and for all."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a critic of the pending 702 bill and FANFSA's lead sponsor in the upper chamber, called the the House's Wednesday vote "a huge win for privacy" and said that "now it's time for the Senate to follow suit."
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Leaked Cables Show Biden Pressuring Nations to Oppose Palestine's UN Membership
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," said one former Lebanese diplomat.
Apr 17, 2024
As the United Nations Security Council prepares to vote Thursday on Palestine's bid to become a full U.N. member, the Biden administration—which claims to support Palestinian statehood—is lobbying UNSC nations in an effort to wrangle enough "no" votes so that the United States can avoid resorting to a veto.
Leaked cables obtained by The Intercept show U.S. pressure on Security Council members including Malta—which currently presides over the body—and Ecuador.
While claiming that President Joe Biden backs "Palestinian aspirations for statehood," one of the cables asserts that "it remains the U.S. view that the most expeditious path toward a political horizon for the Palestinian people is in the context of a normalization agreement between Israel and its neighbors."
"We therefore urge you not to support any potential Security Council resolution recommending the admission of 'Palestine' as a U.N. member state, should such a resolution be presented to the Security Council for a decision in the coming days and weeks," the document advises.
The U.S. argument essentially is that the U.N. should not create an independent Palestinian state by fiat—even though that's precisely how the world body voted in 1947 to establish the modern state of Israel.
The renewed push for Palestine's U.N. membership comes as Israel wages a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority, which hasn't controlled Gaza for nearly two decades, rejected the Biden administration's requests to hold off on seeking full membership.
"We wanted the U.S. to provide a substantive alternative to U.N. recognition. They didn't," one unnamed Palestinian official toldAxios on Wednesday. "We believe full membership in the U.N. for Palestine is way overdue. We have waited more than 12 years since our initial request."
As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
Along with the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom are permanent members of the UNSC, so they also have veto power.
Ahead of Thursday's planned vote, Spain has been doing its own lobbying in Europe to build greater support for Palestinian statehood. At a joint Tuesday press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said the question is "when, not if, but when is the best moment to recognize Palestine."
Belgium—which is seeking economic sanctions against Israel in response to its genocidal war on Gaza—is expected to join Spain's push for Palestinian statehood after the country's European Union presidency expires in June.
Currently, 139 of the U.N.'s 193 member states recognize Palestine as an independent state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
Critics pointed to the leaked cables as more proof of U.S. duplicity and double standards on the Israel-Palestine issue.
"This is the evidence that President Biden's talk about a two-state solution is nothing but idle talk," Massoud Maalouf, a former Lebanese ambassador to Canada, Chile, and Poland, said on social media.
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Database Exposes 'Illicit Network Undermining Democracy Around the World'
Yanis Varoufakis hailed the effort as "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
Apr 17, 2024
"Coups. Assassinations. Riots. Detentions. Disinformation. We know the tactics that have been deployed to undermine our democracies. But who is behind them?"
Progressive International (PI) asks and answers this and other questions with an extensive new database published Wednesday that connects the dots in what the leftist group calls the "Reactionary International"—a loose global network of right-wing leaders and organizations working to subvert democratic institutions.
PI calls it an "illicit network undermining democracy around the world."
"Today is a mask-off moment for the Reactionary International and the parties, politicians, judges, journalists, foundations, think tanks, tech platforms, NGOs, activists, financiers, and entrepreneurs that comprise it," PI said.
"After a year of preparation, we finally open the doors to our new research consortium, exposing the global network of reactionary forces that corrode our democracies, destroy our planet, and drive us closer to world war," the group added.
"The twin insurrections at the U.S. Capitol in 2021 and Brasília's Three Powers Plaza in 2023 left no doubt about the international coordination of reactionary forces," PI argued. "Yet far too little is known about the entities of this network, their sources of financing, and their institutional allies operating inside our political systems."
Ultimately, PI aims to "support democratic systems to become more resilient to their insidious tactics."
From leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former U.S. President Donald Trump—the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee—to evangelical Christian groups influencing laws in African countries criminalizing LGBTQ+ people and tech companies empowering ubiquitous state surveillance, Reactionary International is a who's-who of the world's right-wing forces.
A cursory search of the database's contents shows users can:
- Learn about Israel's NSO, Rayzone, and Team Jorge, and how a team of Tel Aviv tech entrepreneurs fuel unrest in Latin America;
- Meet the Grey Wolves, Turkey's roving death squad with links to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the ethno-nationalists in his governing coalition; and
- Explore the global network of the Falun Gong, its Trump-connected media outlet The Epoch Times, and its traveling dance troupe known as Shen Yun.
Yanis Varoufakis, a PI member and secretary-general of the left-wing Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, called the database "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
PI invites the public to contribute to the database.
"Together, we will not only name, shame, and expose the forces of the far right—but also dismantle their network of complicity," the group said.
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