Draft House Joint Memorial

Legislature of the State of ____________, First Session, 2014 Introduced by Congressperson ______________

A Joint Memorial
Recognizing that farmers in our state have always relied upon healthy populations of pollinators such as honey bees, bumblebees and monarch butterflies to visit the flowers of crops and native plants to enable food and forage crop yields and assure food security for our citizens; Recognizing that April 14, 2014, is the fiftieth anniversary of worldrenowned scientist Rachel Carson, a cancer victim and writer who alerted the American populace to the risks of excessive and untargeted use of herbicides and pesticides that may compromise the health of pollinators, farmers and farmworkers and thereby reduce crop yields and farm viability; and Recognizing that over the last decade, America has suffered catastrophic declines of monarch butterflies, bumblebees and managed honey bees due to a combination of natural and man-made causes; and

Requesting that the Director of the State Department of Agriculture, with the assistance of research faculty in our state universities and professionals in our departments of transportation, parks and fish and game be consulted and enlisted to review the potential economic and environmental risks of declining pollinators to the health, well-being and prosperity of our citizens; Whereas, it is the desire of this legislature to safeguard, restore and wisely use our state natural resources for the betterance of our agricultural economy and food security; and Whereas, the scientific, literary and moral legacy of Rachel Carson has inspired tens of thousands of our young women and men to consider careers in environmental protection, beekeeping and wildlife habitat restoration; and Whereas, this April 14, 2014 is the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of this woman scientist and cancer victim who worked with farmers, wildlife biologists and policy makers to envision environmental protection strategies that would assure the health of our food system and our citizens; Now, therefore, be it resolved by the legislature of the state of ____________ that the 14th of April be declared Rachel Carson Day; And be it further resolved that the Director of the states Department of Agriculture be charged with bringing together state agency professionals and university researchers to establish cost-effective means by which the pollinator populations of our state can be enhanced, recovered and protected from unnecessary or untargeted and excessive use of chemicals in agricultural landscapes, state highway roadside right-ofways and other state lands in a manner that assures rather than further dissipates agricultural productivity and human health;

And be it further resolved that the states Director of Agriculture will report back to the legislature the results of the findings and the recommendations from state agency professionals and university researchers the week before Thanksgiving this year, and every five years from this day onward.