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By *George Kimbrell
One year down, three to go. Trump and his enablers are hell bent on destroying or selling to the highest bidder the federal agencies they are charged with running in the public interest. In the past year, they have been unrelenting in their attacks on food safety, environmental protections, climate change, government transparency and so many other values we hold dear. We are in the midst of the most significant environmental and public health challenges imaginable. We're no longer dreading the harm the Trump administration could do to our health and environment -- we're living it.
If you watched the State of the Union address last week, you may have picked out a common thread: gutting regulations -- many of them crucial to protecting our food and environment -- for the sake of higher corporate profits. Trump's boast that "we have cut more regulations in our first year than any other administration in history," may be good if you're Monsanto or Exxon, but it's dangerous for you and me and our families.
Let's take a look back at Trump's first year in office. What is the State of the Food and Environment Union? Here are just a few (of the many) ways the administration is undermining the food system, public health and the environment.
1. Trump and GMOs
At the wishes of Big Ag and their deep pockets, the Trump administration is keen on approving new GMO plants, fish, insects and animals as fast as possible, with as little oversight as possible. These actions will result in new risks to our food system and environment, not to mention millions more pounds of cancer-causing pesticides poured onto our crops and sprayed near schools, the extinction of native salmon species, the disastrous collapse of pollinators, harm to children and much more.
In two current lawsuits, Center for Food Safety (CFS) sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to force it to rescind approvals allowing dangerous pesticides to be used in new ways, over-the-top of genetically engineered (GE) crops resistant to them. Monsanto's Round-Up Ready crops have become obsolete because of "superweeds" resistant to its main ingredient, glyphosate. In response, the chemical companies are peddling new GE crops that can tolerate older, even more toxic herbicides, namely dicamba (produced by Monsanto) and 2,4-D (a chemical compound in "Agent Orange"). The approval and release of these GE crop systems -- pesticides and GE seeds resistant to them -- will result in hundreds of millions of more pounds of toxic pesticides being sprayed on our food.
Meanwhile, Trump is delaying long-overdue disclosure of all GMO ingredients in foods, required by federal law starting July 2018. Last August, CFS sued and won a case against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) when missed the first labeling deadline. (The administration immediately relented and complied with the law 12 days later.)
The Trump administration also has delayed new rules for the regulation of GMOs, withdrawing proposed updated regulations late last year, despite being long overdue and urgently needed. This was not an accident: Recently, in a speech at the American Farm Bureau Federation, President Trump declared that he is "streamlining regulations that have blocked cutting-edge biotechnology -- setting free our farmers to innovate, thrive, and grow. Oh, are you happy you voted for me. You are so lucky that I gave you that privilege..."
2. Trump and Pesticides
In March, President Trump's U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reneged on a proposed ban on chlorpyrifos, a pesticide that's known to harm kids' brain development, and chose instead to protect the profits of Dow Chemical, the maker of the pesticide. And in November, a hidden bill being pushed by the pesticide industry was obtained by CFS that would dismantle Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections against deadly pesticides.
Two of Trump's cabinet nominees -- Michael Dourson and Sam Clovis -- were so toxic that they were forced to withdraw their nominations instead of being rejected in Congress. At his committee hearing, Dourson's questionable track record and refusal to commit to recusing himself from working on chemicals he's been paid by industry to "study" in the past led Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) to tell Dourson, "You're not just an outlier on this science, you're outrageous in how far from the mainstream of science you actually are. It's pretty clear you have never met a chemical you didn't like."
Sam Clovis withdrew from consideration for Chief Scientist at USDA after being roundly criticized by Congress and the public for being an admitted climate change "skeptic," saying that climate science is "junk science" and "not proven." To make matters worse, Clovis has a history of racism, sexism and homophobia.
3. Trump and Food Safety
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