HHRA’s Accomplishments in 2022
As 2022 comes to a close, HHRA is happy to report progress on all fronts. We share some highlights from 2022 and describe what we hope to accomplish in 2023-2025. A NEW MISSION AND VISION As a part of our…
All Pesticide Use Posts
Worrisome Trends in Herbicide Exposures Highlighted During HHRA Sponsored Session at APHA
On November 8th, HHRA-sponsored a 90-minute special session on “Herbicides and Birth Outcomes” at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA) in Boston. Our session was among a very few exploring how food and farming systems impact…
Extracting New Insights from Old Data on a Pressing Concern — The Rapid Rise in Reliance on 2,4-D Herbicide in the Heartland
By: Marlaina Freisthler* Leveraging existing research is central to HHRA’s strategy to accelerate progress in answering contemporary questions about the health impacts of pesticide exposures. One of HHRA’s goals is to draw on existing datasets to glean new insights into…
Is a Weed Management Trainwreck Around the Corner? – Reflections on the “Superweeds” Wake Up Call in the New York Times
In the mid-1980s when I was the Executive Director of the Board on Agriculture in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), I had the privilege of working with some of the nation’s top weed scientists who had already become concerned…
Time to Slow the Spread of Resistant Weeds by Speeding Up Adoption of Integrated Weed Management
By Tom Green, HHRA Board Chair and Charles Benbrook, Executive Director In the late 1990s Wisconsin soybean farmers eagerly adopted the Roundup Ready (RR) system of weed management. About 40% of the State’s soybean crop was planted to RR soybeans. On 70% of…
Fungicides Use, a Resistant Pathogen, and Rising Death Rates — CDC Connects the Dots
In the 1950s and 1960s, rapidly rising use of antibiotics to promote growth of farm animals triggered mutations leading to resistant bacteria that have found ways to jump into the human population. For most of the last one-half century, over…