Tell the EPA to Stop Delaying Clean Air Protections

Methane is a potent climate pollutant that traps over 80 times more heat on our planet than carbon dioxide, and the oil and gas industry is the largest producer of this pollution. Reducing methane emissions means cleaner, healthier air and less climate pollution harming our national parks and communities. Any delay in these rules only puts people, parks, and wildlife at risk.

Take Action: Please tell EPA Administrator Pruitt that delaying critical methane standards is unacceptable!

Help Protect the SNAP Program and Thousands of Families Depending on It

“President Trump and the Republican leadership in Congress have already indicated they plan to make drastic changes that will gut long-standing and vital programs for the most vulnerable Americans, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) has previously introduced dangerous proposals to change the structure of SNAP that will eviscerate the program and its funding. SNAP is the nation’s most important anti-hunger program and a major pillar of the nation’s safety net. It protects against hunger and lifts millions of people out of poverty. The magnitude of “reforms” likely to be introduced early in the Trump Administration would dramatically increase hunger and poverty.” – Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger

Sign the petition posted by MAZON urging Speaker Ryan to protect the SNAP program and the millions of Americans who cannot feed their families without it.

Call Cuomo and Say NO to GMO Moths

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is allowing Cornell University’s Agricultural Research Station in Geneva, N.Y., to conduct an experiment involving the release of millions of genetically engineered diamondback moths. The moths are an Intrexon invention engineered with a suicide gene that will cause the moths’ female larvae to drop dead on cabbage, broccoli and the other cruciferous crops. This means we’ll be eating genetically engineered moth larvae!

TAKE ACTION: Call Governor Andrew Cuomo at 518-474-8390 today to demand a full safety assessment before releasing GMO moths in New York!

Here’s what you can tell Gov. Cuomo:

Stop the Cornell GMO moth experiment. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has a duty to protect the environment and human health. It must conduct a full safety assessment of the risks associated with the experimental release of genetically engineered diamondback moths in an agricultural area. Until this happens, the experiment must be halted.

We need our state’s environmental regulators to investigate:

1. Whether GMO moths are safe to eat. If everything goes according to plan, Intrexon’s genetically engineered moth larvae will die on crops (before they’re able to damage the plants). This means we will end up eating the GMO moth larvae. Regulators should also consider the impact of Intrexon’s suicide gene contaminating nature’s food chain as GMO female diamondback moths, eggs and larvae are eaten by their natural predators.

2. The risks associated with the use of antibiotics in breeding GMO moths.  Tetracycline is a medically important antibiotic needed for the treatment of human infections. It shouldn’t be used in agriculture, but it is. Intrexon uses tetracycline to control the expression of its GMO moth’s suicide gene. This is likely to make antibiotic resistance worse. It could also compromise the effectiveness of the GMO trait to control crop infestations with so much tetracycline already in the environment. (Tetracycline is sprayed on orchards and crops.)

3. Whether Intrexon’s strategy is worth the risks. Intrexon, through its subsidiary Oxitec, is trying to convince pest control authorities that the best way to decrease insect populations is to increase them. Their plan to release millions of genetically engineered diamondback moths is counterintuitive and risky. The plan to crash insect populations with the release of GMO moths carrying a suicide gene might not work because of too much tetracycline in the environment or for other reasons. Farmers could be plagued with a new GMO version of an old pest.

4. Whether there’s a better way. According to the New York chapter of the Northeast Organic Farmers Association (NOFA), this risky experiment with GMO diamondback moths is unnecessary. There are already approved organic and integrated pest management techniques for controlling diamondback moth populations and reducing the harm they do to crops. Given the alternatives, Intrexon’s GMO moths will likely prove too expensive for farmers to try, even if they’re proven to work.