(Methyl iodide-free) Strawberry Fields (forever?)

Photo: net_efkt

My love affair with strawberries started late; I didn't like them as a kid and only discovered what I'd been missing when I spent a summer in Denmark as a foreign exchange student in the summer after my junior year of high school.

We ate strawberries every day that summer, either for afternoon tea (in the English tradition) or for dessert after dinner. My host family used to gauge my progress in learning Danish by my ability to say (or totally mangle) "strawberries with cream" in Danish. Here's what it looks like in writing: røde grøde med fløde. It sounds like a lot of throat clearing when you say it (Danish is a notoriously difficult language to speak, very different from the singsong style of Swedish or Norwegian).

Anyway, I bring you with me on this trip down memory lane because of news I got today from Earthjustice about the use of methlyl iodide, a carcinogenic toxic herbicide used in growing commerical strawberries, especially in California:

"On Tuesday, the world’s largest private agro-chemical corporation—Arysta LifeScience—announced that it would immediately pull methyl iodide off the shelves in California and across America.

As you may recall, methyl iodide is so carcinogenic that it is actually used in labs to create cancer cells. It’s also a known cause of fetal deformity and a neurotoxin, thyroid function disruptor, and groundwater polluter.

Unfortunately, the toxic chemical was approved for use in California late last year. But because of your support, Earthjustice went to court immediately on behalf of a coalition of groups and farm workers to challenge this approval. When it became evident that there were glaring legal holes in Arysta’s defense of methyl iodide, the pesticide-maker decided instead to suspend sales of methyl iodide effective immediately across the United States."

I stopped eating California strawberries years ago, once I discovered how much better Oregon strawberries are. This year the Hoods and Seascapes  I planted in our garden have finally spread over the rocks and dirt at the edge of our property and I look forward to a delicious crop, once spring finally arrives. But whether you grow your own, buy them in the farmer's market, go out to the farm and pick your own, or get them at the grocery stores, here's to a time when all strawberries are forever free of methyl iodide.

Tell the EPA to ban cancer-causing strawberry pesticides

A message from the good folks at Earthjustice:


Earlier this year, officials in California approved a cancer-causing pesticide that's chiefly used in strawberry fields. They did this over the objections of scientists who warned that use of the chemical would make farmworkers and people in nearby communities sick. The chemical—methyl iodide—is so toxic that scientists in labs use it in very tiny amounts to create cancer cells.

It's already being used in Florida; if California growers start applying it to strawberry fields later this year, millions of pounds of this toxic gas could end up being released straight into our air and water.

But we have a chance to make this right. Officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are signaling they want to take a closer look at whether or not to ban this pesticide.They've given the public until April 25 to weigh in with their comments. We need to let them know that methyl iodide is much too dangerous to be used in our fields and farms.

Here's a link to post your comments to the EPA:

https://secure.earthjustice.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1123>

Legal matters

Last week, the Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against the USDA challenging the USDA's decision to allow the planting of GM alfalfa. You can read more about it in their joint press release here.

In other legal news, the Iowa state house last week approved a bill that would criminalize secret videotaping of activities on farms, specifically related to the mistreatment of animals. While the ag industry is crying victim here, saying they're being held hostage by PETA and other animal rights groups, the larger issue is that investigations into farm and animal conditions would be illegal, if video was used. The bill could also apply to crops, not just animals. In other words, the makers of Food, Inc., could, under this bill, have been arrested if they'd filmed in Iowa and this bill had been law at the time the film was made. Florida is reportedly also considering a similar bill. The Iowa Senate has yet to weigh in.

If you're an ag company and you're supporting a bill that would make it illegal to video your crops, exactly what are you hiding? Yes, that is a somewhat rhetorical question, but I ask it because I don't personally know a single farmer who'd object to anyone filming their farming practices.

Other thoughts? I'd share more of mine but am posting this while I should be writing program notes. Back to Bartók.