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There is serious concern among many regarding recent approval of methyl iodide use in California. Sam Fromartz provides more details and background.

California Recipe: Strawberries with a dose of Methyl Iodide

Several years ago, looking into the differences between organic and conventional farming methods, I focused on strawberries as a case study.

At the time, conventional growers depended on methyl bromide, a potent neurotoxin that is injected into the soil to kill pests and diseases. The applicators wore full body suits with gas masks. The ground was covered in plastic to help keep the toxic gas contained. These fields looked like something out a futuristic moonscape, covered in plastic with workers in full hazmat suits. It was just one of the many toxic chemicals used in the conventional strawberry regime. I described all this in a chapter of my book Organic, Inc. Many people told me that after they read that chapter they never bought a conventional strawberry again.

Methyl bromide was always particularly controversial. Law suits were filed because of drift of this pesticide to nearby public schools on the central coast of California, the heart of the strawberry industry. The issue for the courts: Was the drifting chemical at sufficiently low levels to be safe?

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 This week, California, which has among the most rigorous pesticide regulations in the nation, approved methyl iodide for use. This came despite the unanimous findings of its own scientific panel against approval of the chemical. California Watch quoted a member of this panel.

"It is my personal opinion that this decision will result in serious harm to California citizens, and most especially to children," wrote panel member Theodore Slotkin, a professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University.

Jill Richardson adds more to the same conversation and tells what you can do.

ACTION: Fight Methyl Iodide Legalization

The legalization of methyl iodide was a two-step process. First, under Dubya, the federal government gave it the green light. In California, it needed a second green light before it could be used. That's what came today. A number of groups (see press release below) are calling on the incoming Jerry Brown administration to immediately put a moratorium on the use of methyl iodide.

The history of this story requires a bit of explaining. It begins with the fact that strawberries were never meant to be grown in monoculture in the same fields year after year after year. They just weren't. But that is, of course, what the farms that grow them in California do.

To do it, they kill everything in the soil using a soil fumigant before they plant the strawberries. In the past, they used a chemical called methyl bromide. Methyl bromide is an incredibly potent destroyer of the ozone layer, and for years now, it's been getting phased out internationally. (Although, under Bush II, the U.S. didn't really go along with the program on phasing it out.)

Now the berry farms "need" a replacement to methyl bromide. That's where methyl iodide comes in. Rather than changing the way we grow strawberries, we are about to continue growing them with ever more toxic chemicals. (And honestly, have you ever compared the difference in taste between a fresh-picked strawberry and the kind you get at the store? To me the berries being grown with these chemicals - or even organic berries that are picked under-ripe to ship across the country - aren't even worth eating.)

Please, take action here, and read the following press release from Pesticide Action Network, Pesticide Watch, and Californians for Pesticide Reform.

 

Please allow me a soapbox moment. It genuinely pisses me off to see 'experts' discuss that organics provide no real nutritional advantage over their conventional counterparts, because this argument willfully ignores the presence of pesticides.

And speaking of pesticides...

Working with pesticides linked to dementia: study