CPR is a statewide coalition of more than 210 organizations, founded in 1996 to fundamentally shift the way pesticides are used in California. CPR has built a diverse, multi-interest coalition to challenge the powerful political and economic forces opposing change. Our member organizations include public health, children’s health, educational and environmental advocates, clean air and water organizations, health practitioners, environmental justice groups, labor organizations, farmers and sustainable agriculture advocates.

With almost 30 years of successful movement building and collaborative advocacy experience, CPR is a unique example of cooperation and an elder among coalitions. Founded by eight organizations on the belief that we can get more done by working together than by working separately, CPR now has over 210 member organizations across California.

CPR approaches the need to reduce pesticide use as a critical environmental health and environmental justice issue. We prioritize building leadership in communities living on the front lines of pesticide exposure. CPR has a long history of supporting and linking community leaders, mostly low-income communities and communities of color, to successful local and statewide policy advocacy solutions. Since pesticides lie at the intersection of many issues and movements–from air and water quality to children’s health and reproductive justice to food justice–developing community leadership around pesticide issues simultaneously builds the power of the pesticide movement and all of our movements for health and justice.

CPR uses community organizing, legislation, policy work, litigation, community-based bio-monitoring and air monitoring, and media to achieve our goals. We build leadership at the local level among those most affected by pesticides, work with grassroots groups to change local policies, and connect grassroots leadership with organizations across the state to push for statewide policy change on both the agricultural and non-agricultural fronts.