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pesticides 
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Fri Jan 21, 2011 at 23:50:28 PM PST
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If you work in an office, pesticides probably aren't your biggest health concern when going to work. In fact, you're probably far more harmed by spending a significant chunk of your week sitting on your tush in an office than you are by workplace pesticide exposure. But that is not true for our nation's farmworkers. And the more I think about it, the more fired up I get.
I just finished writing a piece on immigrant women in the food industry for Alternet, which will hopefully be up within the week. And, of course, pesticides are not the only hazard farmworkers face. Women are routinely sexually harassed and even assaulted, workers frequently receive paychecks that reflect less work than they've actually done (and less money than they've earned), and often the workers aren't even given the dignity of a bathroom. In my own state, California, workers have died of heat exhaustion after working in triple digit heat for hours without so much as a water break. And in addition to the illegal acts committed against farmworkers, there are the unfair laws that fail to give farmworkers the same protections that workers in every other industry receive. (For example, overtime pay or child labor laws.)
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Thu Oct 21, 2010 at 06:29:44 AM PDT
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This picture speaks for itself:
This diary covers the town of Achacachi, a small town in the Bolivian highlands where our group stopped for a bathroom break while en route to Santiago de Okola, an indigenous community on the northern shore of Lake Titicaca that we spent a few days with. I took the picture of the DDT for sale in Achacachi. Note that Achacach is nowhere near the part of Bolivia that has malaria.
Previous diaries about Bolivia:
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Wed Aug 11, 2010 at 10:58:33 AM PDT
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This diary series covers my trip to the Mexican state of Jalisco to study the effects of NAFTA and the Green Revolution on subsistence farmers in rural areas. The trip began with a few days in Guadalajara, the largest city in the state. Then we headed to the rural town of Cuquio, about an hour and a half away, for the remainder of the trip. On the 11th day, we drove back to Guadalajara to spend our last day there. At breakfast, we discussed heading to one of the many agrochemical stores in Cuquio to check out the pesticides on our way out of town.
Day 1: Guadalajara
Day 2 Part 1: Breakfast and the EcoStore
Day 2 Part 2: Jalisco Ecological Collective
Day 3: The Flea Market
Day 4: The Drive to Cuquio
Day 5: Delivering Aid to a Village
Day 6: The Second Aid Trip to a Village
Day 7: Conversation with a Corn Expert
Day 8, Part 1: Visit to a Rich Man's Land and an Explanation of Ejidos
Day 8, Part 2: Tour of the Local Employer, a Shoe Factory
Day 8, Part 3: The Third Aid Trip to a Village
Day 9: The Fourth Aid Trip to a Village
Day 10, Part 1: The Fifth Aid Trip to a Village
Day 10, Part 2: Microlending in Cuquio
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Sat Jul 17, 2010 at 12:01:08 PM PDT
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Clearly, Washington knows something that California and the EPA do not about the danger of this carcinogenic chemical. Methyl iodide was to be used in nurseries for forest seedlings and for strawberries in Washington State. However, upon reviewing the chemical's toxicity and potential to contaminate the state's groundwater, they decided to ask the manufacturer of methyl iodide to withdraw its application for registration in the state! Please, California, follow Washington's lead on this!
For more details, see the press release from Pesticide Action Network below.
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Tue Jun 22, 2010 at 13:30:09 PM PDT
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Mmm, fresh, red, plump, juicy strawberries. You know what tastes really great with them? It's a secret I learned as a kid. Dip them in sour cream and then dip them in brown sugar. Delish. Or dip them in homemade whipped cream, or chocolate, or both. Or, if they are fresh picked, just eat them plain. But you know what doesn't taste good with strawberries? Cancer.
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.
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Wed Jun 16, 2010 at 14:31:34 PM PDT
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(The ideas expressed in this diary are not congruent with my own, but I think this is a good discussion for us to have. - promoted by Jill Richardson)
Local foods are coming of age; all the books, news stories, blogs and local food promotions are having the desired effect. Policy makers are paying attention and that signals the end of business as usual for small local farmers.
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Mon May 17, 2010 at 18:38:11 PM PDT
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Here's a shocking headline: Pesticides are bad for you. Really? Who woulda guessed? From CNN: "Study: ADHD linked to pesticide exposure." Here's the core of the story:
Researchers measured the levels of pesticide byproducts in the urine of 1,139 children from across the United States. Children with above-average levels of one common byproduct had roughly twice the odds of getting a diagnosis of ADHD, according to the study, which appears in the journal Pediatrics.
The pesticides in question are organophosphates and it's no big newsflash that they are harmful to humans. They are nerve toxins and they aren't a new class of pesticides. Rachel Carson wrote about them in Silent Spring in 1962. From the article:
Environmental Protection Agency regulations have eliminated most residential uses for the pesticides (including lawn care and termite extermination), so the largest source of exposure for children is believed to be food, especially commercially grown produce. Adults are exposed to the pesticides as well, but young children appear to be especially sensitive to them, the researchers say.
Detectable levels of pesticides are present in a large number of fruits and vegetables sold in the U.S., according to a 2008 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited in the study. In a representative sample of produce tested by the agency, 28 percent of frozen blueberries, 20 percent of celery, and 25 percent of strawberries contained traces of one type of organophosphate. Other types of organophosphates were found in 27 percent of green beans, 17 percent of peaches, and 8 percent of broccoli.
Buying organic for foods like berries, apples, celery, and peaches is a way for individuals to deal with this problem, but this is a problem that nobody should have. As I said before, it's not news that organophosphates are bad for you. These pesticides should have been banned decades ago.
Pesticide Action Network has released a press release about this study, which I've included below. They also recommend a few sites for more info:
What's On My Food
Pesticides and Children
The Truth About Organophosphates
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Tue May 04, 2010 at 07:12:26 AM PDT
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I must apologize for my lack of time to cover this issue fully (I leave for the airport to go to Cuba in 20 minutes). Below, please see a press release about a report on pesticide poisoning victims speaking out against methyl iodide, which California has just approved for use on strawberries and other crops. You can access the full report here [PDF].
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Tue May 04, 2010 at 07:06:43 AM PDT
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"This was black friday" was the response from my contact at the anti-pesticide group when I asked for details on California's decision about methyl iodide. The stuff is such a reliable carcinogen that chemists use it in the lab to induce cancer. And if that's not enough, it also induces miscarriages. Clearly this is a perfect candidate for an agricultural chemical to release into our communities.
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...
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Wed Mar 31, 2010 at 10:59:30 AM PDT
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Today, on Cesar Chavez Day, a number of health & farmworker advocate groups petitioned the U.S. EPA to cancel a carcinogenic pesticide, methyl iodide. The science is in on this one - and it was in before methyl iodide was okay'd by the Bush EPA a few years back. Chemists use methyl iodide to induce cancer in the lab. So why on earth would we use it in farmfields? In their press release, they say:
Methyl iodide is a water contaminant, nervous system poison, thyroid toxicant and is listed on California's Proposition 65 list of "chemicals known to cause cancer." The chemical can readily become a gas and drift away from its intended target, despite any efforts to contain it. Methyl iodide would be primarily used on tomato and strawberry fields at rates up to 175 lbs per acre.
It's just disgusting that our government would allow such a chemical to be used in agriculture in the first place, and I hope the Obama administration will do the right thing.
Below you'll find the full press release, and if all goes as planned, I'll interview some of the folks involved and post about it later today.
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Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 19:58:31 PM PDT
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Who got cancer from growing the strawberries you eat? That's not a pleasant question, I know. But it's a very real one. Until now, methyl bromide has been used widely in growing strawberries. However, as methyl bromide depletes the ozone layer worse than the CFCs we got rid of years ago, it's being phased out internationally. And growers are looking for a replacement. A cancer-causing replacement.
The proposed replacement for methyl bromide is methyl iodide. Chemists use methyl iodide to induce cancer in lab animals. Under Bush, the EPA gave the OK to methyl iodide, but California (producer of nearly 9 out of 10 strawberries in the U.S.) has held up allowing it thus far. They are expected to announce a decision on it soon. This is insane! Chemists take the utmost precaution in using it, but we'd release it into the environment where strawberries are grown?
You can take action a few ways. First, sign the petition to ban methyl iodide in California. Second, send a letter to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation telling them that you oppose the use of methyl iodide and that you will NOT BUY STRAWBERRIES FROM CALIFORNIA if they allow its use.
I will write more about this later, but I'm writing this post from the Sacramento airport, and I just visited a nearby strawberry field yesterday and then attended a conference on pesticide use today. Strawberries are a dirty, dirty crop and there's a lot more to say about them. The short version is that people should NOT buy strawberries in the grocery store and should certainly not buy them year round. Stock up on strawberries when they are in season near you (early summer). Grow your own if you can. Buy A LOT during strawberry season (the price goes down then so you can get 'em cheap - especially if you get super ripe berries that won't stay good much longer). Eat lots of fresh berries, freeze berries, and make jam or preserves. Then don't buy strawberries for the rest of the year.
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Sat Jan 30, 2010 at 12:36:39 PM PST
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I just finished reading The War on Bugs by Will Allen (not the Will Allen of Growing Power - a different Will Allen) and I can't recommend it highly enough! This was a book that Allen was uniquely qualified to write. He grew up on a farm, and then went into the Marines where he was an atomic, biological, and chemical warfare paramedic. Following his years in the Marines, he went to college and - as part of his education - did research in the tropical forests of Peru, living among forest farmers. He says, "The ability of these [Peruvian] farmers to produce surpluses without chemicals in an environment ravaged by pests started me thinking that maybe the miracle chemicals that the sales men pushed were not so necessary after all." After college, Allen went back to farming. Upon taking a pesticide and fertilizer applicator's course at a local college, he found out that the chemicals commonly sprayed on farms were "modified versions of the nerve poisons and antipersonnel weapons that I learned about when studying chemical warfare in the Marine Corps."
So - with his firsthand observations of food grown without chemicals and his knowledge of the toxicity of common farm chemicals - Allen went to work finding out where our dependence and trust of pesticides came from in the first place. His findings actually surprised me. I knew part of the picture, which I wrote about in my own book. I don't think my book was inaccurate, but Allen fills in a lot of details and really makes it clear what happened and how.
More below.
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Thu Dec 03, 2009 at 06:37:44 AM PST
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I went to bed last night a bit earlier than usual. Can't say I can remember any dreams, and as always I woke up this morning to the smell of brewing coffee. Stretched, brushed my teeth, started up some some oatmeal, my normal morning routine. Sat in the kitchen and watched water enter the coffee pot. Steam rose from the top of the machine, and a few minutes later I enjoyed a cup.
Hundreds of thousands of citizens of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh went to bed the night of December 2, 1984, many thousands of them for the last time. As they slept, water filled tank 610 of Union Carbide India, Ltd's pesticide production plant in a heavily populated section of the city. The water reacted with 42 metric tons of methyl isocyanate to raise pressure levels in the tank to the point where emergency venting sent massive volumes of a mix of toxic gasses spewing out into the city's night. The burning sensation in their lungs as they were being poisoned in their beds, in their homes, was what awoke countless Bhopalis that night. Thousands died instantly, while many more were trampled in the panicked flight away from the death cloud twenty five years ago today. Children were stomped to death in the streets by their neighbors as parents looked on helplessly.
Over 25,000 people eventually lost their lives directly due to the gas, and over 200,000 (some estimate many more) have suffered permanent injuries and chronic health problems from that night. Birth defects are still unusually high amongst the children of subsequent generations of those exposed. The people of Bhopal are still being poisoned. And they have yet to receive justice.
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Sat Nov 21, 2009 at 21:45:37 PM PST
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A new report, Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the United States: The First Thirteen Years, found that GM crops have resulted in an increase in overall pesticide use. I'd heard this anecdotally from farmers but now it's been confirmed. The report was done by The Organic Center, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Center for Food Safety. By their math, GM crops have resulted in an extra 383 million pounds of herbicides between 1996 and 2008. Simultaneously, the GM crops resulted in a 64 million pound decrease in insecticide use. Together, that equals an overall increase of pesticide use by 318 million pounds.
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