To add your farm or farmer association to this letter please contact Margaret Reeves of Pesticide Action Network North America.
mreeves@panna.org
FARMERS’ STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF A STRONG AND TIMELY WORKER PROTECTION STANDARD
We the undersigned are diverse farm organizations and farmers living and working in California, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New York, Oregon and Wisconsin. Together with farmworkers and other food chain workers, we grow and sell the crops that feed America and the world. We are writing to you today to urge you, in your review of EPA’s proposed revision of the Worker Protection Standard for Agricultural Pesticides (WPS), to support a meaningfully strengthened WPS and to publish the revised Standard by August 18, 2015.
As farmers, we work closely with farmworkers and often rely on them to plant, tend, and harvest our crops. We know better than anyone else what difficult and important work they do, and we believe it is critical to protect them from avoidable pesticide exposure. Thank you for giving this important matter your time and consideration.
Signed:
Farm Organizations
Chris Brown, Agricultural Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), CA
Ken Dickerson, Ecological Farming Association (EFA), CA
Reggie Knox, California FarmLink, CA,
Chukou Thao, National Hmong American Farmers, Inc., CA
Michael Sligh, Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA (RAFI-USA), NC
Elizabeth Henderson, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY)
John E. Peck, Family Farm Defenders, WI
Farms:
Jim Cochran, Swanton Berry, CA
Judith Redmond, Full Belly, CA
Dora Gregory, Gregory Ag, CO
Jennifer and Gaye Alverson, Steel Wheel Farms, MI
Demian Jackman, Fly Turkey Farms, MN
Elizabeth Henderson, Peacework Farm, NY
Willow Coberly, Greenwillow Grains, OR
Eugene Zimmerman, Quality Soil, WI
Gerardo Acevedo, Acevedo Farm, CA (via ALBA)
Froylan Bucio, CA (via ALBA)
Ana Cruz, CA (via ALBA)
Raúl Murillo, CA (via ALBA)
Martín Rodriguez, Alondra Organic, CA (via ALBA)
Rigoberto Bucio, Bucio Organic, CA (via ALBA)
Misael Morales, Chelito Organic Farms, CA (via ALBA)
José Gallardo, Gallardo’s Organic Farm, CA (via ALBA)
Rudy Jimenez, Green Thumb Organics, CA (via ALBA)
Marcia T. Morales, J.M. Organic Farmers, CA (via ALBA)
Victor N. Cortes, La Granjita Organic, CA (via ALBA)
Florentino Collazo, La Milpa Organic Farm, CA (via ALBA)
Rufino Ventura, Ventura Organic, CA (via ALBA)