Library Search

feature April 9, 2024

What You Need To Know About Chlorpyrifos

The neurotoxic pesticide harms children and the environment. There are no safe uses for chlorpyrifos.

In the News: The Guardian April 5, 2024

New York is suing the world’s biggest meat company. It might be a tipping point for greenwashing

Peter Lehner, Managing Attorney, Sustainable Food & Farming Program: “Consumers are beginning to be aware of the fact that meat, and particularly beef, has a very, very high climate impact. JBS is fully aware of this, and trying to get ahead of that by telling consumers, ‘Oh, don’t worry, we’ve got it under control.’ But…

document April 4, 2024

Monterey Fumigant Petition

Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers, Safe Ag Safe Schools, Center for Farmworker Families, Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, and Californians for Pesticide Reform petition for judicial review of six permits allowing the use of highly toxic, restricted pesticides near three schools in the Pajaro Valley area of Monterey County.

A farmworker harvesting strawberries in Salinas, about 20 miles from the Pajaro Valley. (Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice)
Press Release April 4, 2024

Teachers, Community Groups, and Farmworkers File Lawsuit Challenging Toxic Pesticide Approvals Near Public Schools in Monterey County

Regulators are failing to protect children from repeat exposure to the most dangerous pesticides

Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette collects water samples in the Cape Fear River near the Smithfield slaughter house in Tar Heel, N.C. (Justin Cook for Earthjustice)
Press Release March 26, 2024

Community, Environmental, and Animal Welfare Organizations Press EPA to Strengthen Water Pollution Control Standards for Slaughterhouses and Animal Rendering Facilities

Stronger standards would prevent hundreds of millions of pounds of pollution from reaching rivers and streams, helping to protect more than 22 million people

document March 26, 2024

EPA Comments: Slaughterhouse Clean Water Act Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for MPP Point Source Category

Inadequately controlled water pollution from slaughterhouses and rendering facilities can make water unsafe for drinking, unfit for outdoor recreation, and uninhabitable for aquatic life, posing serious risks to human health and the environment, especially in vulnerable and under-resourced communities. After more than two decades, EPA finally has begun the process of strengthening water pollution control standards for these facilities, and the Agency now proposes to adopt the weakest of three regulatory options. EPA’s preferred option is inconsistent with the CWA and other federal laws.

Press Release March 14, 2024

Earthjustice Statement: New York State One-House Budgets SFY2025

NYS Senate’s and Assembly’s Budget Bills restore clean water funding; Senate champions bold climate policies

In the News: Vox March 8, 2024

Why New York is suing the world’s biggest meat company

Peter Lehner, Managing Attorney, Sustainable Food & Farming Program: “A big potential indirect impact is a bit of education of policymakers. Congress gives special exemptions to animal ag in part because they don’t know, or don’t want to believe, the real climate and pollution impact. So I hope this will get a few more policymakers…

document February 29, 2024

New Water Pollution Control Standards for Slaughterhouses and Rendering Facilities

On average, over 17,000 animals are killed each minute in slaughterhouses across the United States. Slaughterhouse byproducts such as fat, bone, and feathers are often sent to rendering facilities for conversion into tallow, animal meal, and other products. Both slaughterhouses and rendering facilities require a near-constant flow of water, and they discharge hundreds of millions of pounds of water pollution each year.

An industrial hog facility in North Carolina. Hog feces and urine are flushed into open, unlined pits and then sprayed onto nearby fields. The practice leads to waste contaminating nearby waters, and drifting as "mist" onto neighboring properties. (Friends of Family Farmers)
Press Release February 15, 2024

Coalition of Groups Submits Comments Urging EPA to Require Industrial Animal Feeding Operations to Report their Dangerous Air Pollution

Requiring animal feeding operations to report their toxic emissions of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide will help community members better protect their health

document February 15, 2024

Comments: EPA EPCRA AFOs Air Emissions

AFOs emit the extremely hazardous gasses ammonia and hydrogen sulfide, and these emissions pose serious threats to people living nearby, including people living in communities of color and low-income communities. EPCRA requires facilities to report emissions of extremely hazardous substances.

A farmworker harvests strawberries in Salinas, California. (Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice)
Press Release February 2, 2024

130 Agriculture Researchers and Academics Urge Congressional Leadership to Support Robust Climate Research Funding in the 2024 Farm Bill

The joint letter calls for secured support of the vital USDA Climate Hubs

document January 22, 2024

Law360 Opinion: Farm Bill Gives Congress 2024’s Biggest Enviro Opportunity

The Farm Bill is the most important environmental bill Congress will address this year. Usually largely ignored by all but large-scale farmers and ranchers, agrochemical companies and food manufacturers — and their lawyers — it actually profoundly affects us all.

document January 16, 2024

Academic Letter: Climate Hubs to Ag Congress Leadership

We, the 130 undersigned academics and researchers, implore Congress to prioritize the codification of this program under the Farm Bill and ensure its consistent annual appropriations.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a briefing in New York City. (John Lamparski / Getty Images)
Press Release January 9, 2024

Earthjustice Statement: 2024 New York State of the State 

Earthjustice Applauds Governor Hochul for Embracing Key Elements of NY HEAT Act to Address the State’s Expensive, Dirty, Gas System

In the News: Inside Climate News December 30, 2023

Is California Overstating the Climate Benefit of Dairy Manure Methane Digesters?

Sasan Saadat, Research & Policy Analyst, Right to Zero: “California loves to brag ‘this program, for every eight dollars we spend on it, gets us this many tons of CO2 reductions.’ What’s missing from that is the fact that these programs are triple counting those reductions.”

Wolverines are at direct risk from climate change because they depend on areas that maintain deep snow through late spring.
(Visceral Image / iStockphoto)
video December 22, 2023

2023: This is what happens when the earth has a good lawyer

Here are just a few of the things that you helped make possible, thanks to your support.

Press Release: Victory December 15, 2023

EPA Proposes Improved Water Pollution Control Standards for Slaughterhouses and Rendering Facilities

In response to lawsuits, EPA begins process of mandating pollution reductions