Cancer-causing strawberry pesticide pulled – great news!
Posted March 21st, 2012 by Kristin SchaferToday, a pesticide that scientists have called “one of the most toxic chemicals on earth” is being pulled out of strawberry fields and off the U.S. market altogether.
I love good news. And this victory is a big one.
It’s a win for kids living and going to school near strawberry fields. It’s a win for families in rural communities, especially in California and Florida where most of this country’s strawberries are grown.
And it’s a win for farmers and farmworkers alike, as California invests instead in much safer ways to protect berries from bugs.
Scientists were outraged
Methyl iodide’s demise is a fascinating story, with a cast of characters including outraged scientists, concerned farmers, marching farmworkers and mobilized moms.
Plus of course state and national policymakers and Arysta LifeScience, the pesticide company that – until today – was tirelessly promoting their product despite fierce opposition from scientists and affected communities.
Methyl iodide was a bad idea from the get-go, a cancer-causing pesticide that was railroaded into strawberry fields in California and Florida as a replacement for the ozone-depleting pesticide, methyl bromide.
More than 50 scientists – including five Nobel Laureates – told EPA not to register methyl iodide way back in 2007:
It is astonishing then that the Office of Pesticide Programs is working to legalize broadcast releases of one of the more toxic chemicals used in manufacturing into the environment.
EPA officials plowed ahead with approval. Then California held its own independent review in 2010. California scientists also voiced serious concerns, calling methyl iodide “difficult, if not impossible to control,” and “one of the most toxic chemicals on earth.”
Yet somehow – despite these warnings – the pesticide was approved for use in California too. Have to wonder just who those officials were listening to?
The happy ending to this story is that public outrage, fully grounded in strong science, turned the tide.
Even after California’s approval, only a handful of farmers chose to use methyl iodide. It was just too controversial. So Arysta decided its product was just not “economically viable” in the U.S. marketplace, and pulled the plug.
7 Comments
March 21, 2012 at 4:54 pm by LaniTHIS IS HUGE! This news brings tears of joys to my eyes. I think it was about twelve or thirteen years ago that a 4-year-old highly educated playmate of my daughter’s declined strawberries at my house because she told me they were poisoned. I am one to believe young children, but her comment had me wondering if she knew what she was talking about. It was then that my eyes became wide open to the big, bad world of what is happening to our food.
I am now wiser for it, and am so happy that PAN is on top of this and so many other important issues. WAY TO GO!
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Anita Reply:
March 21st, 2012 at 6:24 pm
I’m so glad PANNA is on top of this too. It’s a big announcement. Thanks for your comment!
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Kristin Reply:
March 22nd, 2012 at 11:59 am
@Lani, Thx so very much for your comment! Those kids really do keep us on our toes, no? And I should say – this win wouldn’t have been possible without engaged moms and others stepping up. It was a true team effort, involving scientists who were willing to speak out, farmers making the case that strawberries CAN be grown without fumigant pesticides, farmworkers and community members showing up to testify in Sacramento…This is a very sweet and widely shared victory.
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While this is indeed great news, it’s important to note that this does not mean this toxic product is completely taken out of use. The following announcement can be found on the company website (http://www.arystalifescience.com/eng-us/news.html) and still lists Midas (methyl iodide) as one of their “most important global products”:
“The company would like to express its gratitude to growers, researchers, business partners and supporters who helped MIDAS® achieve U.S. EPA registration and registration in 48 states.
LifeScience will continue to support the use of iodomethane outside of the U.S. where it remains economically viable.”
I am not trying to be a killjoy here.. but some rather more frightening info I discovered on their site is that the company’s “Health & Nutrition Science Unit” offers, among other things, products in: “Human Health – offering cosmetic and pharmaceutical active ingredients and additives, as well as excipients for the pharmaceutical and food additive industries.”
The site is littered with use of words such as sustainable, organic, health, harmony… almost entirely used in the context of business viability as opposed to the uses we might expect from a company that actually cares about what it’s putting into the environment–and into humans & animals. I bring this up because the company boasts: “a focus on emerging countries and niche markets, Arysta LifeScience manages a portfolio of more than 150 products. In addition to its Tokyo headquarters, the company maintains more than 40 offices and subsidiaries that serve 125 countries worldwide.”
This is a monstrous company manufacturing and supplying dangerously toxic chemicals the world over… and in this global economy, those chemicals do not stay just where they are initially applied…
Again, I’m very happy to see the news for the US… I just find this company (and their apparent global strength) rather scary. At the very least, worth keeping our eyes on…
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Anita Reply:
March 21st, 2012 at 6:25 pm
Very much appreciate your thoughtful comment.
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Kristin Reply:
March 22nd, 2012 at 12:12 pm
@Bitsa Burger, You are absolutely right to raise these concerns – and this is exactly why PAN is an international network. I’m happy to report that we’ve already been in touch with our colleagues at the other PAN regional centers around the world to strategize with them about how to leverage this win. Here’s what we know so far: methyl iodide is currently registered in Mexico, Guatemala, Japan, Turkey, New Zealand, Uruguay and Morocco. Registrations are pending in Australia, Egypt, Israel and South Africa. And it’s just as dangerous to children, workers and communities in any country – and should be off the market across the globe. We’ll keep you posted!
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Kristin, this is incredible! Thank you for sharing the good news with all of us.
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