Pollinators, People & Pesticides
What bees tell us about healthy & resilient food systems
Funder Entry Points
The large-scale bee die-offs we’ve been seeing in the U.S. since 2006 are a symptom of much larger problem with
our industrialized food & farming system. Bees are the “canary in the coal mine,” highlighting the problems with a
few biotech and pesticide corporations wielding unprecedented influence over public policy, regulatory processes
and research institutions. At Pesticide Action Network North America (PAN), we are building power to shift
agriculture and pesticide policy in order to counter corporate control, protect pollinators and support a thriving,
sustainable food system for generations to come. To this end, we are seeking funding partners to join us in achieving
the following goals:
1. Win bee-protective policies at state and national level. With PAN’s support, several state-based bee-protective
pesticide policies are on the move. Wins at local and state levels set a precedent while further increasing the
pressure on federal agencies. Continuing to build wide and deep support for bee-protective policies — at local,
state and federal levels — is critical.
o Funding work in localities and states to pass policies will strengthen the movement as it takes on the
necessary work of passing and reforming federal policies like the “Saving America’s Pollinators Act” and
pollinator-supportive components of the Farm Bill.
o PAN co-leads an active national coalition focused on winning bee-protective policies with the Center for
Food Safety and Beyond Pesticides. Participation is growing, but currently engaged groups include Friends of
the Earth, Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides, Organic Consumers Association, Avaaz and
SumOfUs, among others.
o In March, this coalition delivered more than half a million signatures to EPA at its headquarters in DC. We
also sponsored two prominent scientists to join us for a briefing on Capitol Hill on pesticides and pollinators;
ongoing policymaker education is critical.
2. Shift agriculture & pesticide policy and practice. To create an ecologically sustainable and bee-protective
agricultural environment, we also need to build movement capacity to challenge federal policies that continue
to promote pesticide-intensive industrial agriculture more broadly. Consider supporting:
o Campaigns that mobilize public pressure on Congress, USDA and EPA to reject the new suite of pesticidepromoting GE seeds currently awaiting federal approval. These campaigns give voice and power to family
farmers who are standing up to the pesticide/GE seed companies and reframe public debate by dispelling
myths about industrial agriculture’s ability to “feed the world,” while exposing the health and environmental
harms of industrial agriculture (PAN’s GE Pipeline campaign and national coalition-building that has brought
family farmers, health professionals and consumer advocacy groups together to reject pesticide-promoting
GE seeds is one example.)
o Advocacy efforts to a) increase public investments that support and accelerate a transition to sustainable
and organic farming and b) reinvigorate and fund public sector and farmer-led research and development of
hardy and resilient crop varieties appropriate for local or regional agroecosystems (for example, RAFI’s seeds
and breeds initiative, participatory plant breeding programs by Organic Seed Alliance, Northern Plains
Sustainable Agriculture Society and Organic Farming Research Foundation, and farm bill advocacy to
maintain federal funding for organic and conservation farming practices, research and extension).
3. Organize to challenge corporate power: The biggest roadblock to enacting the type of bee-protective and
ecologically sound agricultural and pesticide policies described above is corporate power. It is imperative to get
to the root of the problem if we are to win and sustain meaningful policy changes. Unprecedented corporate
consolidation in the marketplace has led to undue corporate power and influence over public policy and
institutions — and several neonicotinoid pesticides being allowed onto the market before they were thoroughly
reviewed. Support broad-based coalitions of organized communities to:
o Unmask corporate influence, tackle corporate personhood or campaign finance reform, and hold public
agencies, Congress, universities and institutions accountable to public interest. One such initiative, for
example, is the “democracy is for people campaign” led by Public Citizen and other PAN allies. Food & Water
Watch is exposing the deeply harmful impacts of “merger mania” and monopoly power.
o Expose pesticide and seed industry influence over and subversion of democratic policymaking processes in
national and international arenas (affecting pesticide, agriculture, intellectual property and trade policies for
example), as part of building public will and capacity to reign in these powerful industry actors (e.g. by PAN
North America, PAN Europe, PAN International, members of the U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance and others).
o Build alternative systems: support establishment of local and regional seed systems that ensure farmers’
and gardeners’ access to and ability to save, exchange and develop high quality, non-GE, non-pesticidetreated seed (examples include Open-Source Seed Initiative, Organic Seed Alliance’s Farmer Seed
Stewardship program and regional seed systems work, the US Food Sovereignty Alliance’s seed project)
4. Continue to build network & coalition power to advance ecological, equitable & democratic solutions. None of
us can do this alone! Invest in national network-building and cross-cutting collaborative experiments that go
beyond issue-based coalitions to build public will and power towards winning significant, meaningful policy
change over longer term.
o Support broad-based, cross-sector, cross-issue organizing to address decades of social, economic and racial
inequity in our food and farming systems, and collaborations in which historically marginalized peoples are
in the forefront of efforts to reclaim community control of those systems. PAN is working with several
coalitions — including the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), Rural Coalition, Getting Our Act
Together, US Food Sovereignty Alliance and Growing Food & Justice for All Initiative — that seek to do this.
o We are also engaged with partner organizations on state-based initiatives in the Midwest (Institute for
Agriculture and Trade Policy, Practical Farmers of Iowa, and the Women, Food and Agriculture Network) and
California (Californians for Pesticide Reform, including the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment,
California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation and the Center for Environmental Health).
5. Support communications research: Invest in continued development of values-based, data-driven strategic
communications, conducting research on how best to advance the larger conversation in the U.S. about honey
bees and agroecological, sustainable farming. To date, PAN has been integral in ensuring media coverage about
the “disappearance of bees” has shifted to clearly highlighting the pesticide link. Now, as the public conversation
evolves, what continues to resonate with target audiences? What is motivating enough to transform generalized
concern to focused and strategic action? Continued funding for our shared communications strategy is critical,
especially as pesticide corporations like Bayer, Syngenta and Monsanto invest more heavily in spinning the
science and positioning themselves as “bee friendly.”
Advancing Alternatives to Pesticides Worldwide
Main Office: 1611 Telegraph Ave, Suite 1200, Oakland, CA 94612 • Ph 510.788.9020
Midwest Office: 3438 Snelling Ave, Upper Level, Minneapolis, MN 55406 • www.panna.org