Four Decades of Supporting EDF

The early 1970’s were heady times for the environmental movement—from 20 million Americans taking to the streets to celebrate the first Earth Day to the creation of the U.S Environmental Protection Agency—people were taking action and making a ‘green’ difference.

Peter and I were drawn to the Environmental Defense Fund as a leadership organization, because they had fought for and won a nationwide ban on the pesticide DDT and were at the center of many important environmental court battles for clean air, clean water, and for protecting endangered animals.

Peter became a public spokesperson for EDF in the 80’s and I officially joined the Board of Directors in 1986. Over the years, I have been proud to support EDF’s approach to environmental ‘solutions’, which are firmly rooted in science, economics, and cooperation with businesses and corporations to move them toward sustainable business practices.

Today, I sit on EDF’s Advisory Board and strongly support the work EDF is doing to address the most serious threat facing our oceans—overfishing. Overfishing endangers marine habitats and puts at risk billions of people who rely on seafood as a key source of daily protein.

One such program is conceived and run by John Mimikakis, Ph.D., Vice President, Oceans. It aims to secure Indonesia’s first sustainable blue swimming crab fishing pilot, along with a marine management team of community members, industry representatives, local officials and others. The program will cover 10 to 15 percent of national production for one of Indonesia’s most lucrative export fisheries, and serve as a model for the nation and the region.