Green LeavesVolume 18, Number 2 • Winter 2019

President’s Letter ............pg. 2

Catalyst Award...................pg. 3

Community News ...........pg. 7

Events...........................................pg. 11

Member Q&A .......................pg. 13

Liaison Editorial ................pg. 14

Save the Dates ...................pg. 16

In 2018, when we asked what topic members would like to cover at our next fall retreat, environmental justice was the overwhelming response.

Being effective environmental funders requires understanding how people of color and lower income communities have faced disproportionate health and economic effects of our industrial society. These disparities are what sparked the environmental justice movement in North Carolina almost 40 years ago. Our fall retreat in Durham (page 11) explored this history and featured many women who are still fighting for justice today.

Rachel’s Network was founded because the environmental movement was not leveraging the skills, creativity, and talent of women funders or women leaders. We asserted then, and still do today, that the movement suffers when it is not leveraging half of humanity to solve our most pressing and complex problems.

As the US environmental movement and its funders now realize, the same is true with race. That’s one of the reasons why Rachel’s Network launched the Catalyst Award for mid-career women of color last year. We are thrilled to announce the six winners of our inaugural award (page 3) and hope you’ll join us in Washington, DC from March 23-25 to meet them and learn about their impressive environmental initiatives.

By making the movement more inclusive, we are empowering more problem-solvers and addressing more environmental issues with more political clout. This is progress we are thrilled to embrace.

Warm regards,

Fern Shepard President

President’s LetterBoard of Directors

Kim BendheimBetsy Davidson

Martha DavisBarbara Gonzalez-McIntosh

Lisa HolmesAnn Hunter-Welborn

Kef Kasdin (Chair)Laurie Kracum

Fa LiddellAnnarie Lyles

Elena Marszalek Janet Miller

Abigail RomeMolly Ross

Founders’ CircleSally Brown*Harriet BullittGladys CofrinCaroline GabelAnnette GellertRenée IngoldSidne LongAlysia May

Winsome McIntoshDane Nichols

Christine RussellJocelyn SladenVictoria Stack

Barbra StreisandMargery Tabankin

Leslie TurnerLynde B. Uihlein

Carolyn Weinberger*deceased

StaffMit Allenby

Jamie Boese Ariana Carella

Erica Flock Casey HansenFern Shepard

Contact Rachel’s Network

1200 18th St NW, Suite 910Washington, DC 20036

www.rachelsnetwork.org202-659-0846

Cov

er im

age:

Mem

ber

s vi

sit

a m

ural

of

civi

l rig

hts

lead

er P

auli

Mur

ray

at t

he D

urha

m f

all r

etre

at.

3Green Leaves – Winter 2019

Announcing the 2019 Catalyst Award Winners By Ariana Carella, Network Engagement Director Rachel’s Network launched an annual awards program in 2018 to uplift women leaders of color within the environmental movement and strengthen their leadership pathway through recognition, networking, and funding. Now, we are happy to an-nounce our inaugural winners!

How We Got Here

The conversations that led to the Catalyst Award started at our 2016 fall retreat in Portland, Oregon. Afterwards, members Kim Milligan, Barbara Gonzalez-McIntosh, and Abigail Rome were inspired to spear-head a working group to identify how Ra-chel’s Network could have an impact on di-versity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ).

After many conversations with people in the field, we saw an opportunity to hone our efforts on mid-career women of color who often found themselves hitting a “green ceiling” in their work. We knew that an abundance of early-career fellowships didn’t need replication.

Staff and the working group developed the award design and put together a judges committee comprised of members, liaisons, and advisors. These volunteers were ex-tremely dedicated throughout the review process, reading applications, conducting interviews, and sharing their expertise.

The Launch

We announced the Catalyst Award in early 2019 and the response was overwhelm-

ing. Tens of thousands of people viewed our award video, social media posts, and website. Indian Country Today, Philanthropy Women, and Daring Woman wrote about the award. Partners and friends reached out to let us know how excited they were to see us working on this initiative, or shared the website with women they thought should apply.

As the applications began coming in, we were bowled over by the amazing women who are fighting for the environment and their communities across the country. Our process narrowed an impressive candidate pool of 215 to just six winners through mul-tiple rounds of review, gathering references from candidates, and conducting hour-long interviews with finalists.

During our first call, our judges shared their hopes for our candidates. They said they wanted these women to be more visible and to feel less alone. This perfectly encap-

sulated the original spirit and purpose of Rachel’s Network. When Winsome McIn-tosh created this community 20 years ago, this was one of its many goals —for women funding the environment to be more visible and feel less alone.

Rachel’s Network News

Cov

er im

age:

Mem

ber

s vi

sit

a m

ural

of

civi

l rig

hts

lead

er P

auli

Mur

ray

at t

he D

urha

m f

all r

etre

at.

I am so appreciative and proud of Rachel’s Network for being a leader in this space. Funders often talk about the importance of this work, but rarely put their money where their mouth is.– Catalyst Award applicant

4 Rachel’s Network

The 2019 Winners The Catalyst Award provides women lead-ers of color support and recognition for their commitment to a healthy planet, along with a $10,000 prize, networking opportuni-ties, and national recognition for their work.

Annel Hernandez New York

Annel was working in the New York Mayor’s office of economic opportunity when Hur-ricane Sandy hit. For weeks, she couldn’t

get to work, so she volunteered doing emergency operations for thousands of displaced people in the city. She saw how vulnerable New York and New Yorkers were and how dependent cities are on nature, so she decided then she was going to devote the rest of her career to climate resiliency. As associate director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance and member of the NY Renews coalition, Annel was one of the key players in the passage of New York’s ambitious new climate law passed in July 2019, the Climate Leadership and Com-munity Protection Act.

Maria Gallegos Herrera California

Maria grew up in a central Mexican town that lacked running water and electricity. She came to the US

at three and grew up laboring in agricul-tural fields with her family. She lived in rural towns in the San Joaquin Valley that lacked opportunity and infrastructure and are iso-

lated geographically, culturally, linguistically, and economically. Despite those circum-stances, she became a state-wide expert on water issues and was appointed to the California Water Commission. Maria has devoted her career to addressing drinking water challenges in disadvantaged and rural farmworker communities. At Self-Help En-terprises, she and her team pioneered the Rural Communities Water Managers Lead-ership Institute, a program that helps com-munities in the San Joaquin Valley engage with and influence regional water planning and sustainability programs. Recently, she was appointed as regional deputy director of external affairs for California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Tara Houska Minnesota

Tara (Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe) started her career as a tribal attorney representing native families whose chil-

dren were facing forcible removal. Through these cases, she witnessed how intergen-erational trauma and the criminalization of poverty and societal lack of understanding around native identity was hurting families. She shifted her career toward advocacy, co-founding Not Your Mascots, a nonprofit committed to eradicating Native stereotyp-ing, and the Giniw Collective. She spent six months living and working in North Dakota fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline. Now she lives in a resistance camp in northern Minnesota, fighting a years-long struggle against Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline expan-sion crossing native land.

RACHEL’S NETWORK NEWS

5Green Leaves – Winter 2019

Brionté McCorkle Georgia

Brionté grew up on a military base in the middle of the Mojave Desert, as her mom served 20 years in the Air Force. When she

was 10, her family moved to Georgia and she remembers waking up after a four-day journey across the US, seeing Georgia’s thick, green forests out her window. This moment made her an environmentalist and she has spent her career organizing com-munities on critical environmental issues. Brionté is executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters, where she works to elect pro-environment candidates and hold elected officials accountable. In 2014, she led the Georgia Sierra Club’s involvement in the successful effort to expand transit ser-vice to underserved communities in metro- Atlanta.

Juliana Pino Illinois

Juliana is a queer afro-indigenous Colombian immigrant who came to the US under asy-lum from Colombia’s civil war. Juliana has

built the policy department of Little Village Environmental Justice Organization from scratch, tackling all areas of environmental policy affecting the community. She is often the lead negotiator between government bodies and frontline communities. After seeing her community poisoned by lead, she negotiated the first statewide water testing. She negotiated to have Chicago commit to 100 percent renewable energy, with a focus on energy and justice, and led negotiations for Illinois’ Future Energy Jobs

Act in 2016, the most transformative piece of energy system legislation in the state’s history. In these negotiations, she is going head to head with energy company execu-tives who don’t like seeing a woman like her “acting out of turn.”

Heather Toney Mississippi

Heather is a dynamo with infectious posi-tivity. Raised by a hardworking Christian African American fam-ily in the Mississippi

Delta, river, land, and service were always a part of her daily life. Her winning campaign for mayor of Greenville, Mississippi marked three firsts—the first African American, the first woman, and the youngest mayor in the city’s history. In 2014, she was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as region-al administrator for EPA’s Southeast Region, but left a few years later to spend time with her newborn son. After the US withdrew from Paris Climate agreement, she started volunteering with—and was later hired by—Moms Clean Air Force to be their national field director. As a former mayor, she knows first-hand how cities have authority to make climate and sustainability policies, so she created the organization’s Moms and May-ors initiative, which, among its many objec-tives, empowers women to ask their mayors to be considered for appointed board or commission positions.

What’s Next

This program started out as an initiative to increase diversity and elevate women of color leaders. It has become an initiative to build power. We are not just uplifting these six winners, but their communities, the work that they represent.

CATALYST AWARD

6 Rachel’s Network

I have been so fortunate to be involved in this effort and to work alongside members on this program. Thank you for believing in this program and for your generous finan-cial contributions.

We’ll be honoring our 2019 winners at our upcoming Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, which coincides with our 20th anniver-sary. Join us!

If you’re interested in getting involved, please email me at ariana@rachelsnetwork.org. As a reminder, 100 percent of raised collective grantmaking funds go directly to the program. Staff time is covered through your membership grants. Again, thank you for your ongoing support.

Stay tuned for the opening of the next ap-plication cycle in early 2020. Visit rach-elsnetwork.org/catalyst to learn more.

RACHEL’S NETWORK NEWS

Despite getting nearly $2 billion for border walls from Congress in 2017 and 2018, Trump declared an “emergency” in early 2019 to divert billions more from military spending to build his destructive wall, threatening the border’s vibrant communities, biodiverse landscapes, and rare wildlife. Rachel’s Network announced new funding for the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Texas Civil Rights Project in 2019 to bear witness to this travesty. That grant has enabled CBD to share real-time videos from the border with hundreds of thousands of people. Staffer Laiken Jordahl is frequently quoted in media outlets across the Southwest and nationally. While wall construction is underway in Texas, Arizona, and other places, a federal judge in El Paso ruled that the Trump administration couldn’t divert military funds for further border wall construction.

Rachel’s Network Recommits to Anti-Border Wall Effort in 2019

One of many photos from the Center for Biological Diversity documenting destruction at the US-Mexico border in Arizona

(photo: Laiken Jordahl)

Acknowledging the urgency of addressing climate change, the Rachel’s Network Finance Committee approved a plan to move the organization’s reserve fund in early 2019 to a 100% fossil fuel free portfolio focused on environmental solutions.  “Our members lead diverse projects to protect the environment and healthy communities. It only made sense that our reserve fund should align with our vision and passions,” said Treasurer and Board Finance Chair Annarie Lyles. “In addition, we know that sustainable investing provides good returns in long run while staying true to our core values.”

Rachel’s Network Reserve Fund Goes Fossil Free

7Green Leaves – Winter 2019

Community News

Agents of Change at Work in the WorldUpdates on community accomplishments, projects, milestones, and adventures at home and abroad.

Loren Blackford penned the opening letter of the November/December issue of Sierra magazine which features articles entirely on women’s role in environmental action. 

Mary Bookwalter was honored by her alma mater, Orchard School, as alumna of the year for her leadership on conservation issues. She is also celebrating the opening of a new Planned Parenthood clinic in Fort Wayne and the continued work of the Indiana Forest Alliance and the Hoosier National Forest Ecoblitz, a three year survey of biodiversity in a Midwestern hardwood forest.

Members Kathy Borgen, Martha Davis, Olga Donahue, and Molly Ross met with Advisor Maite Arce in Denver to learn about Maite’s work with the Hispanic Access Foundation.

Members Angel Braestrup, Martha Davis, Lisa Holmes, Annarie Lyles, Allison Whipple Rockefeller, along with staff Jamie Boese and Fern Shepard attended a collaborative roundtable with fellow funders in Florida in December on improving water quality in the state. The event included a

Members (from left) Ann Loeb, Renee Ring, Kim Bendheim, Rossie Pope-Meyer, Lisa Holmes, Kef Kasdin and Fa Liddell, along with Liaison Seema Jalan joined the Connected Women Leaders for a reception cohosted by The Rockefeller Foundation and the UN Foundation during the 74th UN General Assembly and SDG summit in New

York featuring former President of Ireland Mary Robinson (fourth from left).

Former Member Elaine Broadhead passed away in July. “She was a lifelong passionate defender of endangered

nature and animals,” wrote her daughter in the Middleburg Eccentric. “The list of species she adored and advocated for is long... She had a very special connection to wolves. Like them, she was independent but also loyal to the core, deeply social and very attached to her ‘pack’.”

In Memoriam

8 Rachel’s Network

field trip to Archbold’s Buck Island Ranch, a research center and cattle operation dedicated to ecological, economic, and cultural sustainability; and an impromptu sea turtle rescue on the beach!

Doe Browning sponsored an event at Betty Ford Alpine Gardens featuring experts on sustainable agriculture. Her work as board chair and donor to the Bright Future Foundation was highlighted in Vail Daily. The organization is building a permanent facility, the BrightHouse, for families affected of domestic violence and sexual abuse in Eagle County, Colorado. Doe led the project with a $1 million lead gift.

Anne Butterfield, Martha Davis, Renee Ring, and Abigail Rome spent 2.5 days together sailing the coast of Maine near Acadia National Park. They were joined by 10 others in three boats, sailing, hiking,

eating, and conversing over environmental and other issues.

Alison Carlson and the Forsythia Foundation recognized the work of Tracey J. Woodruff and the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment with the inaugural Alison S. Carlson Endowed Professorship. This endowment will provide annual funding to help PRHE focus on its important research and policy work to advance human and environmental health.

Marianne Gabel published a letter to the editor in the Columbus Dispatch: “Jefferson would support a carbon-free world.”

Ruth Ann Harnish was honored by Philanthropy Women’s Kiersten Marek in NonProfit Pro’s article “The Rise of Women in Philanthropy” along with Rachel’s Network.

Members Loren Blackford, Mary Bookwalter, Cathy Carlson, Charlotte Hanes, Abigail Rome, Cari Rudd, and Rachel’s Action Network Member Lisa Renstrom participated in the Climate Strike on September 20 in

Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Indianapolis, IN, Washington, DC (pictured above) and New York City. Cari also participated in the #ShutDownDC action that blocked traffic in DC to protest climate inaction on September 23.

COMMUNITY NEWS

9Green Leaves – Winter 2019

COMMUNITY NEWS

Laura Francis of California has worked in ocean conserva-tion, education, and research for 30 years. Her Sea Forward Fund supports ocean science, education, environmental sus-

tainability, multicultural engagement, and clean energy solutions. She is also a mem-ber of Toniic, a global action community for impact investors.

Constance (Connie) Gray of North Caro-lina is a trustee of the Duke Endowment, which funds educa-tion, healthcare, and children and families. She has worked as a social worker since

1990 and also works with the Duke Divin-ity School. She previously served on the Board of Compass Rose Society and Wake Forest University.

Betsy Loyless of Maryland has worked in DC for three de-cades on environ-mental and political campaigns, including as the deputy political director of the Sierra Club; the political

director and senior vice president of the League of Conservation Voters; and senior vice president of the National Audubon Society. She now serves as president of the Alaska Wilderness League.

Cari Rudd of Wash-ington, DC is a stra-tegic communica-tions consultant. Her professional experi-ence includes serv-ing as an aide to US Senator Tom Daschle, overseeing direct

marketing at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and co-founding her own film production company, Bank Street Pictures. Cari is the board chair of Rachel’s Action Network.

Connect with members by emailing our listserv: community@lists.rachelsnetworkcommunity.org

Welcome New and Returning Members!

Diana Hadley was quoted in an article in the Herald Review: “Protecting the borderlands: Douglas-area ranchers, conservationists discuss impacts of a border wall for area wildlife.” Diana is also quoted in two articles about her work with the Mission Garden in Tucson and the organization’s efforts to reintroduce an endangered fish, the Gila

Topminnow, to the Santa Cruz River.

Charlotte Hanes and Lisa Holmes attended the Climate Underground conference at former Vice President Al Gore’s farm in Carthage, Tennessee. The conference convened leading farmers, scientists, entrepreneurs, chefs, researchers,

10 Rachel’s Network

COMMUNITY NEWS

policymakers, and other experts to explore the intersection between soil health, food, and healthy communities. 

Adriana Hayward spoke on a panel at the Women in Residential Construction conference in Scottsdale on the topic of designing and building healthy homes.

GreenWave, the nonprofit that Lisa Holmes supports as a board member, was featured in a new documentary about climate solutions produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, Ice on Fire.

Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour sold his guitars for $21 million at auction to raise money for ClientEarth, a nonprofit co-founded by Winsome McIntosh.

Annarie Lyles made her shares in Kroger, the largest US supermarket chain, available to As You Sow (AYS) for their resolution encouraging the store to adopt recyclable packaging. The resolution went to a vote and was supported by 40 percent of shareholders. She also attended the organization’s retreat in Berkeley, California along with fellow AYS board members Abigail Rome and Cari Rudd. Rachel’s Network has funded several AYS projects, including shareholder action around antibiotics and pesticides.

Abigail Rome was arrested in Washington, DC to protest inaction on climate change as part of Fire Drill Fridays, a regular civil disobedience action started by Jane Fonda.

President Fern Shepard is featured in a Q&A in Philanthropy Women for her leadership with Rachel’s Network.

Greening Youth Foundation (GYF) CEO and Founder Angelou Ezeilo, a leading expert on diversity, equity and inclusion in the conservation field, has joined Rachel’s

Network as an advisor.

Angelou is working to change the face of conservation in the United States and help young people of color find meaningful outdoor careers. Her work earned her an Ashoka Fellowship, sponsored by Rachel’s Network from 2016-2019. She also served as a judge for the Rachel’s Network Catalyst Award and was featured in a video about the award.

GYF’s signature program is its Youth Conservation Corps which has placed thousands of young people in conservation internships across the country.

“Knowing Angelou has inspired our organization and our members to grow their commitment to equity in the environmental movement,” said Rachel’s Network President Fern Shepard. “As both an Ashoka Fellow and Catalyst Award judge, we’ve seen firsthand the dedication and passion she brings to elevating new leaders. We’re honored to have her as an advisor.”

Rachel’s Network is pleased to host an author talk with Angelou on February 13, 2020 in Washington, DC for her new book Engage, Connect, Protect: Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders. Check your inbox for more information.

Welcome, New Advisor!

11Green Leaves – Winter 2019

Environmental Justice at the Durham Fall Retreat “For so long, there were two groups in philanthropy—those who cared about people, and those who cared about the environment. Environmental justice is where they meet, and it shouldn’t be siloed,” said foundation trustee Mary Mountcastle on day three of our fall retreat in October: Environmental and Justice Issues in the South.

Mary’s sentiment was repeated often by many of the speakers at our conference in Durham, a hub for environmental justice advocacy.

The all-women lineup of grassroots campaigners, government representatives, and artists working on issues ranging from forest conservation and agricultural pollution to climate change and parks shared how their environmental work intersects with equity and vice versa, and

how both must be addressed in concert to create a livable world.

Members also explored Durham’s major cultural sites and natural areas to experience the city’s dual identity as a place of both historic injustices and forward-thinking activism and innovation.

Events

Members and guests enjoy lunch and a tour of Member Marcia Angle’s home at Deer Chase Gardens.

North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls talks about her career in civil rights, and the federal

government’s failure to uphold environmental justice.

12 Rachel’s Network

Now, more than ever, we need women fighting at the forefront for a safer and healthier planet. This is our moment as leaders to step up and do what we women do best – find common ground, collaborate, and face our greatest challenges with persistence, courage, and pur-pose.

So, please reach out to women you know and invite them to join our community and our cause. We have road blocks ahead, but we also

Rewilding Rivers in the Pacific Northwest Staff and members Kathy Borgen, Kef Kasdin, Kim Milligan, and Abigail Rome joined American Rivers and the Washington Women’s Foundation to celebrate the success of the modern dam removal movement with a trip to North Puget Sound in September. A dam in the Middle Fork of the Nooksack River has blocked salmon and steelhead for nearly 70 years, and after efforts between the city of Bellingham, local indigenous communities, American Rivers, and philanthropic partners, the dam will finally be removed in 2020. Members enjoyed a panel discussion facilitated by Kim and a trip to the Nooksack River to hear from leaders instrumental to the project.

Ocean Conservation in Santa BarbaraOur two-day regional event on ocean and coastal conservation in Santa Barbara featured advocates and experts

like Julie Packard, who co-founded the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, and Linda Krop, chief counsel of the Environmental Defense Center, along with many scientists at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). We also visited an interactive aquarium at UCSB’s Marine Science Institute and Los Padres National forest for a hike with local conservationists.

EVENTS

Members and guests at the Santa Barbara regional event on ocean conservation.

Members joined American Rivers for a trip to the Nooksack River in North Puget Sound to learn about

dam removal.

13Green Leaves – Winter 2019

What environmental issue has inspired your recent funding?

Member Betsy Fink gave a presentation about her food waste initiative, ReFED, at the Rachel’s Network fall retreat in Portland, Oregon in 2016. I knew food waste was a problem, but had no idea how much it contributes to climate change. It turns out 8 percent of greenhouse gases come from food waste. After I got back from that conference, I reached out to the San Diego Foundation to see if they had a project on this issue I could fund.

How did you go about finding a solution?

At first, I had no idea where to start, so I asked the San Diego Foundation to do a little research for me. They got back to me in early 2017 with a proposal from three local organizations (all helmed by women, as it turns out) that wanted to work

together to address this problem.

Which organizations did you end up funding and what projects did they undertake?

I committed $1 million to the three organizations over three years, from 2018 to 2020. One grantee was the San Diego Food System Alliance. The grant enabled them to launch a county-wide educational campaign on the issue of food waste. They produced resource guides, handouts, and signs for grocery stores, especially in produce departments. They also fostered collaboration by hosting seminars where organizations, businesses, and government could share what they were doing.

The grant also enabled regional capacity for food rescue through an organization called Produce Good. They collect produce that would otherwise end up in the landfill from farms, orchards, and grocery stores, and deliver it to food banks and other charitable community organizations. They rescue hundreds of thousands of pounds from the landfill every year.

One of the places they deliver to is Kitchens for Good, the third grantee I funded. This organization turns recovered produce into nutritious meals for food-insecure people in the county including homeless residents, low-income seniors and children, and after-school programs. They also have a job training program which graduates over 100 students each year and places them in restaurants all over San Diego. I’ve gone to a few of their graduations and they’re really

Member Q&AFunding Local Food Waste Solutions With Ann Hunter-Welborn

(continued on page 15)Culinary students at Kitchens for Good

14 Rachel’s Network

While many of us were buoyed this summer by the 50th anniversary of our nation’s moon landing, the Trump administration gave the US chemical industry another reason to celebrate. This time at the expense of children’s health.

The Dow company was the prime beneficiary of this latest gift from the EPA. In July, the agency announced that it will not ban the use of chlorpyrifos, a dangerous pesticide, on our nation’s food crops. That’s right, the EPA said it was okay to spray this brain-damaging chemical on the array of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and cereal crops that we and our children consume on a daily basis.

With this decision, the EPA continues to sideline science, put public health at risk, and roll back public safeguards in favor of private interests. And this right after another case in point: the EPA’s new “no surprises” inspection policy.

Pregnant women and their fetuses, young children, farm workers, and their communities are particularly at risk. Numerous studies have linked chlorpyrifos to brain damage and abnormal neurological development in children, including learning disabilities, reduced IQ, and behavioral problems.

Known commercially as Lorsban and Dursban, the EPA banned chlorpyrifos for household use in 2000. In 2007, the Pesticide Action Network North America and the Natural Resources Defense Council petitioned the EPA to cancel the product registration for chlorpyrifos and ban all uses. In 2015, the Obama administration

announced it would ban its use in agriculture given the scientific evidence and the assessment of the EPA’s own scientists.

Enter the Trump Administration and Scott Pruitt, who in 2017 reversed this decision. In June 2017, Earthjustice filed objections to this reversal on behalf of 12 public interest groups and 7 states. The American Academy of Pediatrics weighed in, noting grave risks to children’s health and calling on the EPA to take the product off the market. In April, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals gave the EPA 90 days to make a decision.

And on July 18, EPA Administrator Wheeler did just that. The agency denied all objections and refused to ban chlorpyrifos, while also promising an expedited review of the products’ pesticide registration – sometime before 2022. Even if the EPA actually expedites the review and considers the trove of existing scientific evidence, that’s kicking the can years down the road. And our nation’s kids, farm workers, and rural families will bear the burden of this abject federal failure to protect our health.

Dow Chemical (and its pesticide spin-off company Corteva Agriscience) may be popping corks, but some states are having none of it. Hawaii was the first state to ban chlorpyrifos; California has announced that it will do the same; New York recently approved legislation to ban it by December 1, 2021; and New Jersey and Maryland are also considering statewide bans.

In issuing its final order, the EPA had the

Liaison EditorialOur Children Deserve BetterBy Kathleen Rest, Union of Concerned Scientists

(continued on page 15)

15Green Leaves – Winter 2019

temerity (OK, gall might be the better word) to say that there’s still a lot of scientific uncertainty. Only in an alternative universe (or one blinded by anti-regulatory zeal) would an agency say that we need more animal studies when epidemiologic studies have clearly demonstrated serious health effects on humans. I note also that in its order, the agency renews its call for access to raw data from epidemiologic studies.

The EPA’s decisions are just its latest assault on scientific integrity. The agency continues to step away from its primary public health mission, to the dismay of many current and former agency staffers. The Trump administration has placed numerous executives from regulated industry in agency leadership position. The EPA is supposed to be the people’s EPA, and we should hold it accountable when it prioritizes private interests over public health and environmental protection.

The effort to ban chlorpyrifos might be stalled, but it’s not over. Our children deserve better. Let your elected representatives know that the EPA is taking us backwards. They should hold the agency accountable. And we will be watching to ensure that they do.

This article was originally published at blog.ucsusa.org.

moving. Now, they’re launching a baking apprenticeship program.

What did you learn from this experience? Any advice for other funders? Most of my funding is climate and environmental preservation related. This is the only food-related project I’ve ever funded and more local than my other grants. Another thing that made it unique was the high level of collaboration. The three women who lead these organizations are truly collaborative, not competitive. I didn’t request women-led organizations when I went looking for grantees, but I’m happy that it worked out that way.

As for advice, I would start local. The big organizations are important and can educate a lot of people, but the small organizations in your community really get a lot done too.

I was interested in impact and scalability, but I didn’t demand specific results every year in order to secure next year’s funding. I had a lot of trust in the nonprofits’ abilities and commitment. It’s the best way to go, and it’s been a lot of fun!

Kathleen Rest is executive director of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

Ann Hunter-Welborn has been active in environmental and community issues in California for many years. Since retiring from Hunter Industries, she is busy with Nature and Culture International, the Sonoran Institute, Rachel’s Network, and tap dancing. She especially enjoys being bossed around by her seven grandchildren!

MEMBER Q&A LIAISON EDITORIAL

(continued from page 13) (continued from page 14)

Want to read more from our members, liaisons, and advisors? Visit the Rachel’s Network Blog at:

rachelsnetwork.org/news

1200 18th Street NW, Suite 910Washington, DC 20036