Latest news with #pesticides
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
White House rescinds $20m for clean water in pesticide-contaminated rural California
For decades, thousands of residents in California's agricultural heartland couldn't use their wells because the water was too contaminated with pesticides. In December, the Biden administration stepped in with a long-awaited $20m grant to provide clean water, improve municipal sources and relieve the region's financial and health burden. The Trump administration just took the money away. Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) labeled the grant a 'wasteful DEI program', though advocates say the move is an act of cruelty. Drinking water in some parts of the Monterey county region, which largely produces strawberries, has not been safe for decades because it is contaminated with staggering levels of highly toxic pesticide ingredients that threaten the health of agricultural workers and others. The decision to yank the money was 'unjust', said Maraid Jimenez, a spokesperson for the Community Water Center, which was helping manage the grant's implementation. 'People agree that everyone needs safe drinking water, so to have a grant help fix that for a rural community rescinded – it doesn't make any sense to us,' Jimenez said. 'The drinking water crisis here only gets worse, and, beyond our shock, we're trying to mobilize to find a solution.' The funding, along with California state money, would have improved drinking water quality for about 5,500 people, either through improvements to municipal infrastructure or by connecting contaminated wells to municipal lines. The aquifer in the rural, majority-Spanish-speaking communities in Monterey county, which sits about 50 miles (80km) south of the San Jose, is widely contaminated with 1,2,3-TCP, a pesticide ingredient and carcinogen banned in 40 countries that persists for decades in the soil and groundwater. In many cases, the 1,2,3-TCP levels in wells have been found to far exceed state limits and EPA health guidelines for drinking water. 1,2,3-TCP can also evaporate and create toxic fumes in the shower, and it is linked to liver, kidney and reproductive damage. The wells also often contain high levels of arsenic, hexavalent chromium and nitrates. Each are carcinogens and the latter can cause 'blue baby syndrome', a condition in young children that causes their skin to turn blue when the toxin gets into their bloodstream and restricts oxygen flow. Residents have either had to buy jugs of water or use state assistance to purchase them over the last 30 years. Among them is Marcela, a mother of three who has lived in the region for about 10 years. She and her husband are strawberry pickers, and she declined to provide her last name for fear of retaliation from the federal government. Marcela said the family, which lives near Moss Landing, spends about $450 every three weeks on 5-gallon jugs of water. The well on the property that she rents is broken. She and her landlords, an elderly couple who live at the house and whom she takes care of, don't have enough money to fix it. Even if they could, the water from the well would in all likelihood be too contaminated to use. They learned in late 2024 of the plan to connect their property to a nearby water district within three years, which would have alleviated a major stress and financial burden. Then they learned that the Trump administration had rescinded the funding. 'It is devastating news for us,' Marcela said via a translator. 'We urgently need water.' Marcela's family is protected by the bottled water, but some in the region 'didn't know that they couldn't drink or cook with the tap water, so they would use it', said Mayra Hernandez, community advocacy manager with Community Water Center. What that has meant for their health is unclear. Educating residents about the risks has involved Community Water Center staff knocking on doors. The challenges in getting out the word in the region, where there are a large number of workers who don't speak English and who live in isolation from information sources, highlights how essential it is to hook up properties to clean water. The EPA grant, along with state funding, would have connected more than 1,000 residents with unsafe wells to municipal lines. It also would have provided financial support to municipal systems needed to expand water provision and provide improvements. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In an emailed statement, the EPA said: 'Maybe the Biden-Harris Administration shouldn't have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and 'environmental justice' preferencing on the EPA's core mission of protecting human health and the environment.' The cuts are part of the Trump administration's broader attack aimed at killing approximately $2bn for environmental and climate justice initiatives made available through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that would reduce pollution and improve communities' resilience to the effects of climate change. Hundreds of projects across the nation have lost funding, and though lawsuits have sought to restore it, Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' eliminated all IRA money that was not yet disbursed. The decision to rescind the funding came at almost the same time that the EPA announced $30m in funding for rural water improvements – a drop in the bucket compared with what was available under the Biden administration. None of the new funding is going to the region around Marcea's home. Jimenez said the EPA's actions 'don't fall in line with their messaging'. 'Drinking water is a human right and it shouldn't be a political topic that's contested,' she said. The Community Water Center is now looking for other sources of funding through the state, but Jimenez added that advocates are determined even if the situation for now remains unclear. 'Just because a grant is being canceled doesn't mean the problem is going away,' Jimenez said.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
White House rescinds $20m for clean water in pesticide-contaminated rural California
For decades, thousands of residents in California's agricultural heartland couldn't use their wells because the water was too contaminated with pesticides. In December, the Biden administration stepped in with a long-awaited $20m grant to provide clean water, improve municipal sources and relieve the region's financial and health burden. The Trump administration just took the money away. Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) labeled the grant a 'wasteful DEI program', though advocates say the move is an act of cruelty. Drinking water in some parts of the Monterey county region, which largely produces strawberries, has not been safe for decades because it is contaminated with staggering levels of highly toxic pesticide ingredients that threaten the health of agricultural workers and others. The decision to yank the money was 'unjust', said Maraid Jimenez, a spokesperson for the Community Water Center, which was helping manage the grant's implementation. 'People agree that everyone needs safe drinking water, so to have a grant help fix that for a rural community rescinded – it doesn't make any sense to us,' Jimenez said. 'The drinking water crisis here only gets worse, and, beyond our shock, we're trying to mobilize to find a solution.' The funding, along with California state money, would have improved drinking water quality for about 5,500 people, either through improvements to municipal infrastructure or by connecting contaminated wells to municipal lines. The aquifer in the rural, majority-Spanish-speaking communities in Monterey county, which sits about 50 miles (80km) south of the San Jose, is widely contaminated with 1,2,3-TCP, a pesticide ingredient and carcinogen banned in 40 countries that persists for decades in the soil and groundwater. In many cases, the 1,2,3-TCP levels in wells have been found to far exceed state limits and EPA health guidelines for drinking water. 1,2,3-TCP can also evaporate and create toxic fumes in the shower, and it is linked to liver, kidney and reproductive damage. The wells also often contain high levels of arsenic, hexavalent chromium and nitrates. Each are carcinogens and the latter can cause 'blue baby syndrome', a condition in young children that causes their skin to turn blue when the toxin gets into their bloodstream and restricts oxygen flow. Residents have either had to buy jugs of water or use state assistance to purchase them over the last 30 years. Among them is Marcela, a mother of three who has lived in the region for about 10 years. She and her husband are strawberry pickers, and she declined to provide her last name for fear of retaliation from the federal government. Marcela said the family, which lives near Moss Landing, spends about $450 every three weeks on 5-gallon jugs of water. The well on the property that she rents is broken. She and her landlords, an elderly couple who live at the house and whom she takes care of, don't have enough money to fix it. Even if they could, the water from the well would in all likelihood be too contaminated to use. They learned in late 2024 of the plan to connect their property to a nearby water district within three years, which would have alleviated a major stress and financial burden. Then they learned that the Trump administration had rescinded the funding. 'It is devastating news for us,' Marcela said via a translator. 'We urgently need water.' Marcela's family is protected by the bottled water, but some in the region 'didn't know that they couldn't drink or cook with the tap water, so they would use it', said Mayra Hernandez, community advocacy manager with Community Water Center. What that has meant for their health is unclear. Educating residents about the risks has involved Community Water Center staff knocking on doors. The challenges in getting out the word in the region, where there are a large number of workers who don't speak English and who live in isolation from information sources, highlights how essential it is to hook up properties to clean water. The EPA grant, along with state funding, would have connected more than 1,000 residents with unsafe wells to municipal lines. It also would have provided financial support to municipal systems needed to expand water provision and provide improvements. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In an emailed statement, the EPA said: 'Maybe the Biden-Harris Administration shouldn't have forced their radical agenda of wasteful DEI programs and 'environmental justice' preferencing on the EPA's core mission of protecting human health and the environment.' The cuts are part of the Trump administration's broader attack aimed at killing approximately $2bn for environmental and climate justice initiatives made available through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that would reduce pollution and improve communities' resilience to the effects of climate change. Hundreds of projects across the nation have lost funding, and though lawsuits have sought to restore it, Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' eliminated all IRA money that was not yet disbursed. The decision to rescind the funding came at almost the same time that the EPA announced $30m in funding for rural water improvements – a drop in the bucket compared with what was available under the Biden administration. None of the new funding is going to the region around Marcea's home. Jimenez said the EPA's actions 'don't fall in line with their messaging'. 'Drinking water is a human right and it shouldn't be a political topic that's contested,' she said. The Community Water Center is now looking for other sources of funding through the state, but Jimenez added that advocates are determined even if the situation for now remains unclear. 'Just because a grant is being canceled doesn't mean the problem is going away,' Jimenez said.
TechCrunch
6 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
How TRIC Robotics is reducing pesticide use on strawberries using UV light
Strawberries are the most popular berry in the U.S. for both consumers and farmers alike. They're also some of the most pesticide-reliant fruits and consistently top the Environmental Working Group's 'Dirty Dozen' list of the most contaminated produce. TRIC Robotics, a San Luis Obispo, California-based, think it can help strawberry farmers reduce chemical use with the help of UV light and robots. The startup built a fleet of robots that use UV-C light, a form of ultraviolet light that is largely blocked by the earth's atmosphere, to kill bacteria and damage pest populations. The tractor-sized autonomous robots can treat up to 100 acres and also use vacuums designed to suck up bug residue without hurting crops. The company runs its robots at farms overnight as a service, as supposed to selling them directly to farmers, because, while harder to scale, this model seemed like the right one to start getting traction quickly, Adam Stager, the co-founder and CEO of TRIC, told TechCrunch. 'We worked a lot with the farmers to understand the right way to launch the technology and what was the right business model,' Stager said. 'We found out that a lot of the farmers pay for pest disease control as a service, so they have a company come in and do the sprays. And what we've been doing is just replacing that as a service model.' While Stager said the company has been very focused on what farmers want, it wasn't always that way. In fact, TRIC wasn't even focused on agriculture to begin with. Stager launched the company in 2017 after completing his PhD in robotics. The company was initially focused on 3D printed robots for SWAT teams. In 2020, Stager decided to pivot into an area he thought would have more impact and started focusing on agriculture. Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW 'I really just wanted to answer the question, if you were to die tomorrow, would you be happy with what you accomplished in your life?' Stager said. 'I was like, okay, I really need to do something impactful that can help a lot of people to feel value for myself. I kind of stumbled into agriculture on that journey, [and realized] that's a place where we can impact so many people, just about everybody.' Stager reached out to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to see if there was any technology they were working on that he could help commercialize, knowing from his PhD program that a lot of great technology never leaves the lab. He got connected to a USDA program that brings folks like Stager and scientists, who haven't yet commercialized their work, together. This outreach connected him to the UV light technology that became the basis for TRIC's robotics. 'We loaded two robots that we build in my garage on top of the SUV,' Stager said about him and co-founder Vishnu Somasundaram. 'We had two connections that the USDA helped us build with farmers that were willing to give us just a tiny little piece of land in 2021 and that's really the beginning of when this company started. It was a cross-country journey of AirBnB surfing for eight months where we were deploying two robots and getting this amazing data with these farmers.' Now, the company, which also counts Ryan Berard as its third co-founder, works with four large strawberry producers, has deployed nine robots, and has three more robots on the way. TRIC Robotics recently raised a $5.5 million seed round led by Version One Ventures with participation from Garage Capital, Todd and Rahul Capital, and Lucas Venture Group, among other investment firms, and individual angels. The company plans to put the money toward continuing to build out its fleet of autonomous robots and TRIC eventually wants to move into other types of crops as well. 'I think there is going to be a really, really bright future for [agriculture] tech,' Stager said. 'I just think people should know that things are really headed in a great direction, and there's really a lot of exciting things to come.'
The Guardian
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
What has it taken to unite France's divided voters? A hated, toxic chemical
A million petition signatures in 10 days? That should tell a government something: that a huge number of citizens aren't happy with what it has just done, but also that they still believe in their democracy and its ability to course-correct. In response to pressure from farmers' unions and the agricultural lobby, on 8 July, the French legislature passed a bill named the loi Duplomb, which contained numerous measures to boost large-scale industrial agriculture – among them, the reauthorisation of a previously banned insecticide, acetamiprid. Beet farmers in particular say they have no alternative to fighting pests. However, there is a growing scientific consensus around acetamiprid (enough, it should be pointed out, for use of the substance to have been banned in France since 2018): it is linked to highly negative effects on bee populations, and, according to the European Food Safety Authority, may adversely impact learning and memory in humans. Studies also show that the whole class of chemicals to which acetamiprid belongs, neonicotinoids, could cause birth defects and reduce male fertility. When the law passed, the cancer survivor and activist Fleur Breteau couldn't contain herself. 'You're on the side of cancer and we'll make sure everyone knows it!' she yelled at the legislature from a balcony. Well, the word is certainly out. By Sunday evening, a petition posted by a 23-year-old student calling for the government to reconsider the contentious law had crossed the 1m signature mark and shows no sign of slowing down. At the time of writing it's at 1.3m – well beyond the 500,000 signatures that enables parliament to bring the petition to debate, and by far the most signatures since the introduction of the official petition site in 2019. There are large, macro reasons why the loi Duplomb should never have been passed. At a time when Europe could be vaunting the superiority of its agriculture and accelerating a transition towards sustainable, regenerative farming, the law is, generally speaking, an enormous step in the wrong direction. It's not that farmers don't need assistance, it's that they need assistance in transitioning to regenerative agriculture. That means a series of practices (less tilling, reduced use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, cover crops, and rotational grazing and natural fertilisers) that can increase biodiversity and restore soil health, and in turn help soils to retain more water and become carbon sinks. According to Rattan Lal, the director of Ohio State University's Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, regenerative agriculture globally could enable soils to draw down between 1bn and 3bn tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year. In other words, changing the way we farm could negate up to 8% of annual emissions globally (almost three times the impact of eliminating aviation altogether). Then there is the specific cause of the backlash against the loi Duplomb: acetamiprid. I find it curious which issues seem to catch alight, and it's not surprising that food and health would be prime terrain for that to happen. Both are tangible in an everyday sort of way, rather than having the problem of being almost too big to wrap one's head around. Perhaps our brains are simply more able to deal with the threat posed by introducing a dangerous chemical into the food system, than with systemic threats and cascading impacts through the climate and ecosystems. And that's what is instructive about the reaction to the loi Duplomb, and what it means outside France. It's no secret that faith in democracy has been tumbling almost everywhere. But France has experienced a particularly acute decline, with French voters expressing far more disaffection than their neighbours in Germany and Italy. In the midst of that, the research institute Destin Commun proposes that the environment may actually be a unifying issue for French voters – a generational, civilisational type of project that can provide a sense of national purpose. In its most recent report, Destin Commun found that 87% of the French are concerned about the climate crisis and environmental degradation, and French voters rank the environment as a more political issue than they do insecurity, retirements, immigration or inequality. The French government has an opportunity here. Not just to do the right thing, but to show voters that democracy works, that activism produces results, that the youngest voices can be among the loudest. It could seize the moment to turn around and say, as Charles de Gaulle once did, Je vous ai compris! Alexander Hurst is a Guardian Europe columnist
The Guardian
19-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Exposure to a mix of pesticides raises risk of pregnancy complications, study suggests
Exposure to multiple pesticides increases the chances of pregnancy complications compared to exposure to just one pesticide, new peer-reviewed research suggests. The findings raise new questions about the safety of exposure to widely used pesticides and herbicides in food and agricultural communities. The study, which bio-monitored pregnant women in a heavily agricultural state in Argentina, adds to recent-but-limited evidence pointing to heightened dangers in mixtures of pesticides. The authors say research into how pesticide mixtures impact human health is important because the vast majority of studies look at exposure to a single pesticide, and regulations on the substances' use are developed based on toxicity to just one. However, people are frequently exposed to multiple pesticides in non-organic meals, or when living in agricultural regions around the world. Studying exposure to those mixtures and other environmental factors is 'essential' to protecting people's health, said the authors, with the National University of the Littoral in Argentina. 'The concept of the exposome, which encompasses all lifetime environmental exposures, underscores the importance of studying pesticides as mixtures rather than in isolation,' the authors wrote. The study comes on the heels of University of Nebraska research that found state cancer records and bio-monitoring data showed that exposure to multiple pesticides could increase the chances of children developing brain cancer by about 36%. The new study checked for pesticides in the urine of nearly 90 pregnant women in Santa Fe, Argentina, a heavily agricultural region, and monitored their pregnancy outcomes. About 40 different pesticides were detected. At least one pesticide was found in the urine of 81% of women, and 64% showed multiple pesticides. Of those, 34% had pregnancy complications. The number of women living in urban areas who had at least one pesticide in their body was only slightly lower than those in rural districts, suggesting that food is also a meaningful exposure route. But about 70% of women in rural settings showed multiple pesticides, compared to 55% of women in urban settings, highlighting a greater risk among the former. Rural participants were over twice as likely to have pregnancy-related complications compared to urban, in part because they are more frequently exposed to mixtures. The Santa Fe region grows dozens of crops, including lettuce, cabbage, chicory, tomato, parsley, spinach, carrot, bell pepper, potato and strawberry, and the wide range of crops leads to the use of more pesticides, the authors wrote. 'The increased prevalence of pregnancy-related complications among rural participants highlights the need for a comprehensive review of pesticide use protocols, exposure limits and health risk assessments in agriculture and horticulture programs,' the authors said. Gestational hypertension was among the most common pregnancy-related complications, and the most common outcome was intrauterine growth restriction, a condition in which the fetus does not grow to a normal weight during pregnancy. The findings may also point to dangers in the type of pesticide to which women are exposed, the authors wrote. Those who had complications showed higher levels of triazole fungicides, a pesticide class that is widely used on crops like corn, soybeans and wheat. Some previous evidence suggests it's a reproductive toxicant, and the authors say their findings show the need for more research on the class's potential effects. Though not all the same pesticides are used in the US or other countries as in Argentina, the use of triazole fungicides increased four-fold in the US between 2006 and 2016, especially in the southeast and midwest. Still, it has drawn little regulatory scrutiny. Exposure to mixtures of pesticides in general 'is the rule, not the exception', said Nathan Donley, a pesticides researcher with the Center for Biological Diversity, who was not involved with the study. 'For the most part we have absolutely no clue how different mixtures interact in utero, in a child or in an adult,' Donley said. 'Some mixtures probably aren't doing much of anything, others are probably causing significant harm that we have not identified yet.' There is little regulatory oversight of pesticide mixtures in the US, in part because determining health impacts of mixtures is complicated, Donley added. 'The US tends to just default that it's all safe until proven otherwise, and since there is very little research on pesticide mixtures, it's rarely proven otherwise,' Donley said, adding that the unknown risks calls for the use of greater precaution. The authors note that the paper's sample size is small, and the findings point to the need for a larger bio-monitoring study. 'Greater efforts are required to deepen and expand the evaluation of human exposure to pesticides in vulnerable populations,' the authors wrote.
