ACTION: Fight Methyl Iodide Legalization

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Dec 01, 2010 at 17:57:16 PM PST

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.

Schwartzenegger Vetoes Overtime Pay for Farmworkers

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jul 29, 2010 at 05:35:03 AM PDT

In vetoing the measure, Schwarzenegger cited the fragile economy and said that extending overtime protections could put farms out of business, or result in lower paychecks for agricultural workers because farmers would hire more people and cut hours to avoid paying overtime.

What a jerk. I'm sorry but if a farm can't pay its workers fairly, I don't see that it deserves to be in business.

The bill's author was, of course, none other than Dean Florez. Here's how he responded:

Florez said the Republican governor sided "with a labor practice derived from the segregationist South," and that the veto means it is "acceptable to treat one class of people differently from all others."

"The governor had a chance to make history," said Florez, the son of farmworkers. "He had a chance to wipe a 70-year-old shame off the books of California. Instead, he has decided to side with the shameful."

I quite agree.

Would You Like Cancer With That?

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jun 22, 2010 at 13:30:09 PM PDT

Today, the scientists at Pesticide Action Network released a document called Poison Gases in the Field: Pesticides put California families in danger. It's about tests done with a device called a Drift Catcher that monitors the air for fumigant pesticides. They gave it a try in the California town of Sisquoc to see how well local residents were protected from airborne, carcinogenic pesticides. The answer? Not well.

Pesticide Victims Speak Out Against Newly Approved Pesticide

by: Jill Richardson

Tue May 04, 2010 at 07:12:26 AM PDT

Really Bad News: CA Okays Carcinogen Methyl Iodide on Strawberries

by: Jill Richardson

Tue May 04, 2010 at 07:06:43 AM PDT

California, which grows the majority of the nation's strawberries, has given methyl iodide the preliminary thumbs up to use on strawberries and other crops. They are taking comments for 45 days (until June 14). We need to generate LOTS of comments. I'll post instructions once I receive them. In the meantime, I recommend buying LOCAL strawberries grown without the use of soil fumigants like methyl bromide or methyl iodide. Please, buy enough to last you the year and can them and/or freeze them.

UPDATE: Here's where you send in comments: http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/de...

Invasive Pests and Eradication Efforts

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Apr 09, 2010 at 23:04:47 PM PDT

This is rather interesting, in light of some research I've been doing about California's efforts to eradicate the light brown apple moth (LBAM), an invasive pest from Australia. They were found in northern California a few years ago and the state's Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) decided almost immediately to institute frequent aerial spraying in several counties. The CDFA's plan runs entirely counter to science for a number of reasons. First, LBAM isn't that serious a pest anywhere in the world - and the moths have many natural predators.

If you ask me, the brown garden snail is a much more serious pest, and it's also invasive, even if it's not as recent a newcomer as the LBAM. But instead of blanketing the entire state - including densely populated urban areas - with pesticide, there's a quick and easy solution for the brown garden snails. Actually, there are several. In my own yard, I'm releasing decollate snails, which prey on garden snails. Traps using beer to drown the snails work pretty well too. And I'd much rather suffer a bit of damage from either a moth or a snail than see the entire area where I live doused with pesticides. You could easily use the same non-toxic tactics to deal with LBAM, like creating habitat for its predators in agricultural areas.

Letter From California

by: paradox

Sun Feb 28, 2010 at 05:49:44 AM PST

We are pretty late but next weekend the youths at St. Jude's and I will finish their strawberry garden, 5 automatically irrigated raised boxes--380 square feet--are waiting from the excellent soil prep they performed last Fall for around 300 ever-bearing plants.  With just 1,000 square feet the St. Jude's garden will never seriously feed a lot of people, it may just be a foodie hobby or playground, but I always hold out hope that good political and social lessons can be one of its crops.

I think I was a little too much firebrand Chavez the first time I worked with the youths in the strawberry garden, explaining emphatically that the California strawberry market had presented California with enormous problems in the past, only to deliver a snow-topped piece of shit fruit at the end of it all.  None of them knew of our horrifying methyl bromide history (sealing off fields to be pumped up with incredibly toxic gas, the rapacious strawberry capitalists hate profit-eroding bacteria) or the terrible problems and injustices of picking the fruit.  Inherently fragile, the strawberry is picked unripe so it can travel to stores, it's just maddening to be in strawberry season only to be presented with crappy fruit at the expense of all that often-illegal backbreaking labor and terrible environmental degradation.  We still get so-so fruit at Safeway, but at least methyl bromide has been banned.

DiFi Does Something Sleazy

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Feb 13, 2010 at 17:25:39 PM PST

Sen. Dianne Feinstein ignited a firestorm among fellow California Democrats on Thursday as word spread of her proposal to divert Northern California water to Central Valley farmers.

Feinstein wants to attach the proposal as an amendment to a fast-tracked Senate jobs bill. She is pitching the plan as a jobs measure to address the economic calamity in the Central Valley. It would increase farm water allocations from 10 percent last year to 40 percent this year and next, an amount that farmers say is the bare minimum they need.

Why is she so eager to help farmers? The article goes on to say:

Feinstein has long supported California agriculture but began to weigh in on the side of farmers in the water wars after requests from Stewart Resnick, the well-connected owner of Paramount Farms, which grows citrus and nuts on 118,000 acres in Kern County.

In September, Resnick wrote Feinstein complaining that "sloppy science" by federal wildlife agencies was causing farm water shortages. A week later, Feinstein forwarded the letter to Obama administration officials, who authorized a review by the National Academy of Sciences.

"It seems to be a complete reversal of her position," Thompson said. "The entire Bay Area delegation had agreed we would do this National Academy of Sciences report to find out scientifically what should and shouldn't be done, and for her to turn that on its head and go out unilaterally with this proposal does not take into consideration the needs of all of California."

Resnick's business has given $29,000 to Feinstein's campaigns and $246,000 more to Democratic political committees during years when she sought re-election, according to a report by California Watch, an investigative journalism nonprofit organization, that was published in The Chronicle in December.

I really want to see her voted out of office.

Fiji Water Money Taints Politics of CA Drought

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Dec 23, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PST

On Sept. 4, Resnick wrote to Feinstein, complaining that the latest federal plan to rescue the delta's endangered salmon and shad fisheries was "exacerbating the state's severe drought" because it cut back on water available to irrigate crops. "Sloppy science" by federal wildlife agencies had led to "regulatory-induced water shortages," he claimed.

"I really appreciate your involvement in this issue," he wrote to Feinstein.

One week later, Feinstein forwarded Resnick's letter to two U.S. Cabinet secretaries. In her own letter, she urged the administration to spend $750,000 for a sweeping re-examination of the science behind the entire delta environmental protection plan.

The Obama administration quickly agreed, authorizing another review of whether restrictions on pumping irrigation water were necessary to save the delta's fish. The results could delay or change the course of the protection effort.

To environmentalists concerned with protecting the delta, it was a dispiriting display of the political clout wielded by Resnick, who is among California's biggest growers and among its biggest political donors.

Hat tip to blogger Rossi for this story.

New Observations from Space Spell Bad News for California

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Dec 18, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PST

"GRACE data reveal groundwater in these basins is being pumped for irrigation at rates that are not sustainable if current trends continue," Famiglietti said. "This is leading to declining water tables, water shortages, decreasing crop sizes and continued land subsidence. The findings have major implications for the U.S. economy, as California's Central Valley is home to one-sixth of all U.S. irrigated land and the state leads the nation in agricultural production and exports."

In other words, this isn't just a problem for California. It's a problem for any American who eats fruits, nuts, or vegetables. Hopefully, that includes all of us. One more factoid I find particularly significant: "More than 75 percent of [groundwater loss] is due to groundwater pumping in the southern Central Valley, primarily to irrigate crops."

Barbara Boxer Goes to Bat for Factory Farms

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Oct 05, 2009 at 08:22:10 AM PDT

Congress is on the verge of passing legislation to give money to help struggling dairy farmers, and Senators from traditional dairy states like New York want the money to favor small farms. That would send the money disproportionately to their states, but I don't have a problem with that at all. The dairy culture in places like Wisconsin and Vermont is tangible when you visit those states. Loss of those farms would result in further moving the dairy industry west and with it would go a part of those states' culture. The same could not be said of the enormous farms out west. Furthermore, enormous farms benefit disproportionately from the low-cost labor of undocumented workers, which rigs the market against smaller, family operations in which dairy farmers attempt to earn a living wage without breaking the law. I'll be writing Barbara Boxer an email, asking her to quit shilling for factory farms. If you live in California, please join me in doing the same. (If you live elsewhere, you can call Boxer's Senate office at (202) 224-3553.)

California Cuts Funds for Land Preservation Program

by: Jill Richardson

Sun Aug 30, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

The state currently preserves farmland under the Williamson Act, which allows counties to reduce property taxes by up to 90% on farmers in exchange for the farmers promising to keep their land in production for at least 10 years. The state then reimburses the counties for some of the property tax revenue that they lose through the program. More than half of California's farmland is protected under this system. However, Gov. Schwarzenegger cut the funds for state reimbursement to the counties by $28 million last month.

Farmland preservation is an important issue around the entire country. Even though we've seen an increase in farmers in the last five years, we've still experienced a decline in farmland. As more and more suburban areas develop in what was once farmland, cities and their surrounding suburbs lose their ability to sustain themselves from food grown locally.

California Gets More Enlightened About Greywater

by: Jill Richardson

Mon Aug 03, 2009 at 00:57:05 AM PDT

Greywater is slightly used water - water from sinks and showers, for example. The water you flush down your toilet is blackwater. And it makes perfect sense that you want really clean water to wash your hands or shower in, but after you've used it for that, once it's slightly dirty but not totally disgusting, perhaps you could use it again? For example, the used water from your sink could go to your toilet. Do you really need perfectly clean water to pee in? Yet, thus far, there were some roadblocks in the way for Californians who were interested in greywater systems.

Fortunately, that is changing. California has new statewide greywater regulations, starting August 4. Previously it was legal but required a permit. Now the permit is no longer required, although you are supposed to follow certain rules. But assuming you do that, you can now divert shower and washing machine drains to water your yard or garden. I'm kind of cringing at the idea of laundry detergent and shampoo going into everyone's yards, but the "experts" in charge recommend certain brands of supposedly eco-friendy detergent that make it OK. So let's hope this is a step forward for California.

Now if only we had some kind of incentives to use greywater from sinks to flush toilets...

Sampler Platter

by: Jill Richardson

Sat Jul 25, 2009 at 06:00:00 AM PDT

• What happens when a cropduster gets too close to an organic farm? Nothing good.

• Wanna take some action against NAIS? Click on the link and send an email to the USDA.

• Why are artisan producers so important? Read this article on a local salumi company and you'll begin to understand. From the age, breed, and feed of the pigs to the lack of nitrates to the unique recipes, Knight Salumi produces a product that just cannot be obtained through our corporate food system.

• "Three wise men" made a pilgrimage to DC last week: Wes Jackson, Wendell Berry, and Fred Kirschanmann. Here's a Q&A with the trio. I sure hope the politicians who met with them valued their input.

• Organics grew 118% (by acreage) worldwide between 2000 and 2007. Organics are still less than 1% of global agriculture, however. 97% of spending on organics occurs in the U.S. and E.U. I think this is probably only looking at CERTIFIED organics - who knows how much uncertified land is managed organically in developing countries by people who never converted to industrial techniques.

• ACTION: Re-examine our trade agreements. The TRADE Act looks like a great bill to support.

• A Pennsylvania school board didn't want to hear the consequences of allowing a CAFO to locate near where the school buses are parked. You can see the presentation they WOULD have seen at the link.

• Here's a great article on bogus "local" campaigns by major corporations who are anything but.

• Hillary Clinton thinks Indian farmer suicides are due to a need for loans. Well, sort of. If you want to take a really shallow view of it, then yes. But there's a lot more to the story than just that, and I doubt Hillary wants to "go there" because it might involve questioning free trade and industrial agriculture.

• Food stamps are getting easier to use at farmers' markets, says the NYT. GOOD. This is a very hot topic near where I live. We had no markets that took food stamps a little over a year ago. Now we have several, and it really wasn't that difficult to set up (so I'm told). Yet, most markets around here STILL don't take food stamps, because those in charge haven't taken the steps to do so (and presumably either haven't thought about it or don't want to).

• What's going on in California's Central Valley? Well, it's not good. As the water dried up, so did the paychecks. This article calls Fresno "California's Detroit."

• A new study smacks down Monsanto. From the abstract:

  Chronic health effects are increasing in the world such as cancers, hormonal, reproductive, nervous, or immune diseases, even in young people. During regulatory toxicological subchronic tests to prevent these on mammalian health, prior commercialization of chemicals, including pesticides and drugs, or GMOs, some statistically significant findings may be revealed. This discussion is about the need to investigate the relevant criteria to consider those as biologically significant. The sex differences and the non linear dose or time related effects should be considered in contrast to the claims of a Monsanto-supported expert panel about a GMO, the MON 863 Bt maize, but also for pesticides or drugs, in particular to reveal hormone-dependent diseases and first signs of toxicities.

What Percent of Food Comes from California?

by: Jill Richardson

Thu Jul 23, 2009 at 11:39:28 AM PDT

Crop: Percent Grown in California in 2007*
Pomegranates: 100%
Artichokes: 99%
Kiwi: 97%
Olives: 96%
Figs: 96%
Pluots: 95%
Plums and Prunes: 94%
Brussel Sprouts: 93%
Avocados: 90%
Nectarines: 89%
Garlic: 85%
Celery: 83%
Grapes: 83%
Dates: 82%
Apricots: 82%
Cauliflower: 82%
Broccoli: 81%
Lemons: 79%
Persimmons: 77%
Honeydew: 77%
Tomatoes: 76%
Lettuce: 73%
Nuts: 65%
Carrots: 62%
Strawberries: 59%
Spinach: 59%
Tangerines: 58%
Chinese Cabbage: 49%
Asparagus: 47%
Cantaloupes: 46%
Peaches: 44%
Limes: 42%
Non-Valencia Oranges: 37%

About the orange, valencias are one of two major Florida varieties used for orange juice. Navel oranges, which are the preferred variety to eat as oranges (and not as juice), primarily grow in California, not Florida. While Florida out-grows California for oranges, Florida's oranges go into juice. It's the Cali oranges that you eat as oranges if you like to eat navels.

*All of this data comes from the 2007 Census of Agriculture