Download this hour long radio interview of SAVE THE FROGS! Founder Dr. Kerry Kriger on Food Integrity Now, discussing Atrazine, frog legs, chytrid fungus, dissections, politics and more. Listen to lots of other interviews at:

http://savethefrogs.com/audio/#interviews

The US Environmental Protection Agency is now seeking public comments regarding a potential ban on Atrazine, one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States. The EPA’s call for comments was prompted by 10,012 petition signatures received from SAVE THE FROGS! supporters, and over 50,000 emails from supporters of the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The call for comments appeared in the September 14th, 2011 Federal Register, the official journal of the Government of the United States. View the Federal Register entry here and submit your comments here. The commenting period ends November 14th, but please don’t delay. Read our press release here. (more…)

Want to help get Atrazine banned? Great! Please click the image below, then download, print and post the PDF at your school, in your office or around town. Thanks for helping spread the word!

One of the goals of the Save The Frogs Day Rally in DC was to get the attention of the US EPA, who holds the power to ban Atrazine and whose mission it is to protect environmental and human health. In this regard (and every other I can think of!), the rally was a huge success. The EPA heard about the rally, and last Friday I gave a 50-minute presentation on amphibian conservation to 10 members of the EPA’s Pesticide Division in Arlington, VA. I spoke about the threats amphibians face, the importance of protecting amphibians and the problems with Atrazine. I showed pictures from the rally and also delivered our petition with the signatures of 10,012 SAVE THE FROGS! supporters calling for a federal ban on the use and production of Atrazine. I also delivered 16 pages of my favorite comments collected from the petition signatories.

Read my letter to the EPA here (official submission of the petition).

Read the petition comments here.

Though Atrazine did not get banned at the conclusion of our meeting, I was extremely pleased with the reception I received and feel confident that we are on the path towards a federal Atrazine ban: ten of the most important people in the EPA now know and care more about frogs than they did a week ago, and our petition to ban Atrazine will soon be submitted to the Federal Register along with an official call for comments period.

Unfortunately, the rules under which the EPA is forced to operate do not make it easy to ban an approved pesticide. The soonest it seems they would ban Atrazine is 2013 — when the official review period begins. In the meantime, they will be working to ensure that all the available science (6,000 studies) has been thoroughly reviewed so that the review period is completed as rapidly as possible. SAVE THE FROGS! will continue to raise awareness of the issue in order to gain widespread public support for a ban, and I will be sure to attend next year’s Scientific Advisory Panel hearings on the ecological effects of Atrazine. We will also begin working at the city, county and state level, and for this we will soon seek your assistance!

I want to thank everybody who signed the petition, and also thank the Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council, whose supporters sent over 70,000 letters to the EPA in recent weeks in support of a ban on Atrazine. The fight for an Atrazine-free USA is not over, but our voices have been heard!

Syngenta (the world’s largest pesticide company and producers of Atrazine) is stepping up their efforts to spread their disinformation and pro-pesticide propaganda. They or the lobbying firms that represent them are now buying high priced, top-of-the-page Google Adwords for the search terms ‘Save The Frogs’ and ‘Save the Frogs Day’. The ads link to sites that attempt to persuade the public that Atrazine is “Safe For Wildlife”.

Syngenta realizes the only thing that stands between us getting Atrazine banned is how successfully we educate the Americans about the harm the pesticide causes. That an 11 billion dollar company is watching SAVE THE FROGS! clearly demonstrates that our amphibian conservation efforts are producing results. BUT…it also means we are going to have to step up our efforts to overcome their disinformation campaigns!

To make matters worse, the US Congress is passing the most anti-environment legislation in years. A few weeks ago the Congress stripped Endangered Species Act protection from wolves (what animal group is next?). This coming Tuesday the House Agricultural Committee wild hold a hearing featuring invited speakers only, called “At Risk: American Jobs, Agriculture, Health and Species–the Costs of Federal Regulatory Dysfunction”. The English translation: some members of the House think that regulating deadly chemicals signifies a dysfunctional government.

This Friday we will march through the streets of DC to ensure that our politicians and the US public know we will not tolerate a government controlled by the pesticide companies. And we will grow this movement so that the anti-environment legislators never get voted in or appointed in the first place!

Please help us fight the world’s largest pesticide company by making a tax-deductible contribution to SAVE THE FROGS!