Program areas at Friends of the Earth
Outreach and membership:the outreach program educate members and activists as well as the greater public about significant threats to the environment and wildlife, and encourages them to participate with Friends of the Earth to achieve positive outcomes including protecting pollinators from toxic pesticides, protecting public lands from pollution, and preventing industrial projects that would harm communities and ecosystems. This is done through online action alerts, online advertising, mailings print newsletters (to members), as well as social media sites like facebook, twitter, and youtube. Foe also seeks opportunities to educate the public through tv and radio interviews. the communications directly reached at least one million people who took more than 7.5 milling actions in the 2022 fiscal year. These actions contributed to accomplishments like restoring protections for tongass national forest, stopping a $200 million loan package to marfrig global foods that would have increased industrial agriculture and human rights violations in the amazon, and pushing president biden to ban the brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos in food.
Climate and energy:the climate & energy team promotes clean energy and conservation and fights to end our dependence on dirty, harmful sources of energy including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear. In the last year, the team helped lead efforts to prevent fossil fuel subsidies and resisted attempts to open up public waters and lands to fossil fuel development. It continued efforts to promote energy efficiency and/or renewable energy in nc and tn; and phase out the use of dangerous, aging nuclear reactors in fl.
Food and technology:the food and technology team conducts policy advocacy, market campaigns and scientific research to promote a more just and sustainable food system. In the past year, the team advocated for public policies to phase-out bee-killing pesticides and campaigned to convince garden stores and grocers to stock more bee-friendly and organic products. It also helped institutions such as schools to adopt more climate-friendly purchasing policies, pushed financial institutions to divest from factory farms, and advocated for better regulation of products made with synthetic biology.
Economic policy:friends of the Earth (foe)'s economic policy team aims to create a more environmentally sustainable and socially just world by transforming financial and economic systems. Activities include efforts to end subsidies for polluting industries and encourage investments in clean alternatives. During the last year, it worked to alter lending practices at large financial institutions that fund fossil fuels and harm communities and biodiversity in the us and abroad. It pressured institutional investors to adopt policies to defund deforestation, particularly related to palm oil production.
Oceans and vessels:the oceans & vessels team works to stop air and water pollution from ocean-going vessels, cruise ships, ports and oil development in order to protect human health and the environment. In the last year, it helped adopt and implement policies in the pacific northwest to protect the marine environment and issued its annual cruise ship report card. It expanded efforts to prevent the build-out of new plastics facilities and continued advocating for international shipping regulations at the imo.