Petition Alert: Strawberries & Methyl Iodide

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I received this FRESH petition and wanted to pass it along:

Methyl iodide, approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2007, is dangerously close to being approved as a soil fumigant for strawberry crops in California and spreading as a widely-used pesticide for crops around the country.

Methyl iodide is a replacement for methyl bromide, which is currently being phased out by Montreal Protocol due to it’s toxicity. The problem is, methyl iodide is four times as toxic. At present the California Department of Pesticide Regulation is working to approve use of this pesticide as a soil fumigant for it’s strawberry crops, which netted $600 million in 2008. The pesticide is particularly good at killing off soil pests and would help ‘protect’ the strawberry. This is particularly disturbing because strawberries happens to be one of the most important fruits to protect from pesticides according to the Environmental Working Group because of it’s ability to maintain high levels of pesticide concentration even after heavy washing.

In collaboration with CREDO Action and the Pesticide Action Network of North America, the folks at FRESH, are calling on the EPA to ban this pesticide.

I’m signing the petition. I hope you will too.

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