Kendra Klein: Pesticides, Power, And The Future Of Organic

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Welcome to Season 2 of Boiling Point. I'm Miranda Greene.

Dave Chapman (0:04)

Climate change is impacting very severely the ocean ecosystems.

SPEAKER_3 (0:08)

We're kind of like plastic cyborgs now, right?

Linley Dixon (0:11)

It's everywhere.

SPEAKER_1 (0:12)

Each week, I'll speak to LA Times reporters, experts and decision makers to highlight the most pressing news related to our natural world and the innovative ideas that could help us move forward.

Boiling Point is presented by LA Times Studios. Listen to new episodes every Thursday.

Kendra Klein (0:30)

There are over 70 pesticides that have been banned in other countries, including the European Union, Brazil, China, because the science is clear, that are still being used in the US. I think that's why we're seeing this incredibly vocal anger about pesticides in our food system because it's taking an enormous toll on people and it's one that we did not consent to, and it's one that we don't benefit from. I think people are very accustomed to thinking about the power of big oil, big tobacco, but we don't talk about big pesticide.

There are companies that are literally poisoning us for profit.

Linley Dixon (1:23)

Welcome to the Real Organic Podcast. I'm Linley Dixon, co-director of the Real Organic Project. We're a grassroots, farmer-led movement with an add-on organic label that distinguishes crops grown in healthy soils and animals raised on pasture without synthetic fertilizers or toxic chemicals. You just heard from Kendra Klein. She's a senior scientist at Friends of the Earth, and Kendra has spent the past decade studying pesticides and their impacts on our health and our food system.

She recently sat down with Dave to talk about why these chemicals remain so deeply embedded in American agriculture, even as the science documenting their risks continues to grow.

Dave Chapman (2:09)

Welcome to the Real Organic Podcast, and I'm talking to Kendra Klein today. Kendra is senior scientist at Friends of the Earth. And Kendra, I've known you for a long time because I met you in those early battles with the National Organic Standards Board. And you were one of many people who got up and testified.

And we've started talking again more recently, and I'm really impressed by the work that you and Friends of the Earth have done around pesticides. So I thought we might start there. Absolutely.

You're quite an activist. So could you tell me what inspired your work? What are you focused on? What are your thoughts about where we're at with that? Things getting better, they're getting worse?

Kendra Klein (2:59)

Everything? Just some brief thoughts on everything.

Yeah. First, very happy to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me to join. And you asked what inspires your work. And I have been working on pesticides at Friends of the Earth for the past 10 years. And that really starts long ago when I was two, my mom got breast cancer. And again, when I was 20, she had breast cancer. And so, you know, as a 20-year-old in college in an environmental studies program, it really started me asking questions about why there are rising rates of cancer and so many health problems. And learning about all of these industrial chemicals, including pesticides, that we are ubiquitously exposed to.

And that through many turns has led to work like what I'm doing at Friends of the Earth, where I'm really bringing together that perspective on chemicals and our health and what can we do about it, and organic as a really critical piece of the solution.

Dave Chapman (4:15)

You know, I've seen a lot of organic farmers who became organic farmers because their families were touched by cancer from the pesticides that they were using in the fields.

And of course, many of us are not farmers who are still touched by cancer because of the toxins in our world, in our food, in our water, in our air. How much of, for you at Friends of the Earth, or how much of your work at Friends of the Earth is focused on agriculture?

Kendra Klein (4:49)

I'm on our food and agriculture team, so all of my work.

And I talk about pesticides in relation to pollinator health. When I first came on, that was really a key part of the work. And we have a very large base of members who care deeply about bees, as I think many of us do. So pesticides harm to pollinators, but over the past 10 years have really expanded the research and the storytelling I'm doing to talk about pesticides harm to soil life, harm to our own health, and again, why organic and ecological farming is a really clear solution to those harms. But I think, you know, the thing about pesticides is they very elegantly highlight the interconnectedness of the web of life, because it's the same chemicals that are driving declines in pollinators, that are harming other wildlife, that are harming ourselves, our children. And so any work that we do or whatever is driving each of us to really address that is going to result in benefits across the system. And that is so much of why I love working on agriculture because there's real solutions. We're not just talking about what's wrong.