Our efforts to get the Vermont Agency of Agriculture to follow the law and publish annual pesticide usage data — something they haven’t done since 2013! — were highlighted in this Vermont Digger article earlier this month.
We’ve been monitoring Vermont’s pesticide usage data for nearly 25 years, publishing several reports, including “Vermont’s Atrazine Addiction (Food & Water/1997)” and “Vermont’s GMO Legacy (RegenVT/2016).” Sadly, the story has been the same all along: More pesticide usage, and more damage. And the Ag Agency’s response? Hide the data. In other words, they’d rather protect Big Dairy than the public and the environment.
We have brought this lack of public disclosure — and flouting of the law — to the Vermont legislature’s attention on many occasions, including in public testimony. But there has been no action in terms of legislative oversight or accountability, allowing the Ag Agency to keep spinning excuses as the years go by without providing the public with data necessary to meet the goal of reducing pesticide threats.
Here’s an excerpt from the VTDigger article:
Environmental advocacy group Regeneration Vermont has pushed the agency to publish the reports. Michael Colby, executive director of the nonprofit, said publishing the pesticide usage data is in the interest not only of the public but also regulators and VPAC, which is charged with recommending targets toward an overall statewide reduction in pesticide use.
“I mean, if the goal is to try to reduce pesticides … the best place to start is to know how much you’re using,” said Colby.
He said his organization had obtained copies of commercial pesticide use reports from 2014-2016. “But we had to file a FOIA, we had to threaten legal action, we had to really push push push,” Colby said.
The group analyzed that data and determined that the use of glyphosate — commonly used in weed killers including Roundup — on corn fields had doubled during that time. The World Health Organization had deemed glyphosate a “probable human carcinogen” and it has been banned in a dozen locations around the world.
Again, we encourage you to read the entire article here. And then sound off to your legislators, asking them to do the necessary oversight to force the Ag Agency to follow the law and release the pesticide data.
