Your Signature is Needed: Tell the EPA NOT to approve gene-silencing pesticides

URGENT ACTION NEEDED: Stop the EPA from approving the sale of new, risky GENE-SILENCING PESTICIDES! [Take action now!]( Agrichemical corporation GreenLight Biosciences (GLB) used genetic engineering and nano-scale pesticide coatings to create a new pesticide that tries to kill insects by interfering with their genetic material. Despite how little we know about this new technology, it could reach the market before the company finishes its field trial research, and before the EPA has even evaluated the full data. This pesticide could easily drift and harm people, endangered species, and beneficial insects! But we don’t know how, Friend – EPA’s review of GreenLight Biosciences data leaves important human and environmental health issues unaddressed. Even worse is that we don’t know whether the masks and protective gear for farmworkers will be at all effective with this novel pesticide. Remember, Friend, this pesticide could interfere with genetic material – a key part of the core instructions for living organisms. It’s too risky to let this pesticide onto the market without a longer-term full assessment of its potential impacts. But we have less than ONE WEEK to submit comments to the EPA before it could move forward. [Please, Friend, STOP the EPA from approving RISKY, UNDERSTUDIED RNA-INTERFERING pesticides before it’s too late! Sign the petition now! >>]( *287 more signatures needed from your area* [SIGN THE PETITION]( Not only is this new pesticide potentially harmful, there’s also evidence that it could be essentially useless! One experiment of a similar product found that after nine rounds of use, some insects became more than 11,000 fold resistant to the pesticide’s effects. Why risk so much for a product that might become rapidly ineffective against its target, the Colorado potato beetle? There’s also the concern of corporate control. Corporations developing these gene-silencing pesticides claim they should have ownership of any organisms (and their offspring) on which the pesticide is sprayed, even if the spraying is off-target and unintentional. This would give biotech companies expansive property rights over nature! Ask yourself, Friend: Do you really want this new pesticide on the market? Sprayed into our environment and on farms where people are working? Me neither – but the EPA gave you just 15 days total to make your voice heard. [Send your message now before this reckless pesticide approval is rammed through!]( [SIGN THE PETITION]( Standing with you, Dana Perls Senior food & agriculture program manager, Friends of the Earth Contact Us: Friends of the Earth U.S. Washington, D.C. | Berkeley, CA 1-877-843-8687 [Contact us](foe.org/about-us/contact/) Email Preferences: [Click here to unsubscribe]( Learn more: www.foe.org/news www.foe.org/about-us www.foeaction.org Connect: [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Flickr]( © 2021, Friends of the Earth. All Rights Reserved. [supporter]