Measure Free Hippie Cook

Strawberries Fields Forever?

3 April 2010 by Jean Johnson

Some things just don’t change.  I wrote an article in 2005 on the nasties surrounding conventional strawberry production. Here are two excerpts.

• The papery star of leaves capping the red fruit might be green, but the California strawberry industry has a way to go. At issue is the ozone-depleting biocide, methyl bromide, that berry growers sterilize coastal soils with prior to setting out young plants. The highly toxic gas is listed for worldwide ban in 2005 under the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement aimed at reducing dependency on ozone-depleting chemicals.

• Senior scientist at Pesticide Action Network North America, Susan Kegley, Ph.D., thinks moves toward organic farming are on target. “One of the things we’re trying to facilitate is for people from the EPA and USDA to talk with sustainable ag people who are farming without fumigants so that we can get research money for viable alternatives that don’t require toxic substances,” Kegley said. “Our government subsidizes so many things. If we’re going to put billions into energy bills, why not help our farmers transition away from chemicals and have subsidies go to those who reduce their use of fumigants.”

Nasty upon nasty methyl bromide is finally being phased out. But, as Kristen Ridley wrote on the Sustainable Food blog March 31, 2010:

“This would be good, except the fumigant that chemical manufacturer Arysta would like to replace it with is methyl iodide. Methyl iodide is used by scientists for the delightful purpose of intentionally inducing cancer in lab animals. Cancer is not just this chemical’s side effect; it’s its job. Astonishingly, the EPA under Bush approved this chemical for use, although California, where the majority of U.S. strawberries are grown, held off on approving the stuff. California is the second largest user of methyl bromide in the country, so now that it’s getting the boot, the pressure is on for the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to approve methyl iodide, known commercially as “Midas,” in its place.”

If you’re intrigued and more of the history, here’s my full 2005 E Mag piece:

“Strawberry fields…Are We Doomed to Use Methyl Bromide…Forever” 

The papery star of leaves capping the red fruit might be green, but the California strawberry industry has a way to go. At issue is the ozone-depleting biocide, methyl bromide, that berry growers sterilize coastal soils with prior to setting out young plants. The highly toxic gas is listed for worldwide ban in 2005 under the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement aimed at reducing dependency on ozone-depleting chemicals.

Yet, after a decade of success in rolling back global levels of consumption, the California strawberry industry that uses 40 percent of the nation’s production convinced the Bush administration to back pedal. While in 2003, U.S. consumption of the gas was down to 7446 tons, the Environmental Protection Agency received ‘critical use exemptions’ from parties to the Montreal Protocol to raise the bar to 10,472 tons for 2005.

“The phase-out was actually working quite well and along comes 2005, and the US asked for an exemption to both continue production and allow use at 39% of the 1991 levels upon which the cutbacks over the past 10 years have been based,” said David Doniger, senior attorney and director of climate center policy at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “But the EPA’s own data showed a total usage of only 31 percent of the baseline in 2003. So we’ve sued the agency on the basis that the exemptions for 2005 don’t conform to the Clean Air Act and Montreal Protocol requirements.”

Doniger underscores problems with the EPA’s calculations. “We’re saying that there’s so much puffing that’s gone into figures that things aren’t adding up. Also in our suit is that the EPA has allowed the big bromide companies to keep producing even though we found that the United States already has at least 10 tons of the chemical stockpiled which is more than the alleged need.”

“Methyl bromide is one of the major chemicals still allowed that degrade the ozone,” said Ray Chavira, scientist in the EPA’s San Francisco pesticide office. “Byy the end of summer the re-registration process listing about 6 alternatives, though, should be complete. Then the EPA will focus on getting commodity groups to transition over to those chemicals, a process that will probably take 1 to 3 years. So what we’re trying to do is pace ourselves in moving away from methyl bromide.”

Rodger Wasson, president of the California Strawberry Commission said, “We in the strawberry industry have been in full cooperation on the Montreal Protocol process and our growers have funded research to find alternatives. I’m not sure who if anyone has done more to find alternatives to methyl bromide. But it’s difficult, complicated, and expensive experimenting with these other chemicals and conducting field trials. You can have farmers right next door to each other have different outcomes, so you have to feel your way along. It’s both a science and an art—not a slam dunk.”

Another point that underlies the debate is competition in the global market. While parties to the Montreal Protocol established on a 2005 ban for developed nations, they agreed that 2015 was appropriate for developing countries. In a congressional report, Wayne Morrisey wrote that “of particular concern were consumption allowances for developing countries some of which compete directly with U.S. produce markets.” A Sacramento Bee editorial that pointed to Mexico as an emerging competitor echoed that the lack of a level playing field amounts to “the equivalent of unilateral disarmament for the California strawberry farmer.”

Although the USDA spent over $172 million from 1993 to 2004 researching alternatives to methyl bromide, the agency says it needs more time to come up fumigants that are as effective. “We have reduced the use of methyl bromide in this country by 65 percent from 1991 levels and I think that’s quite notable,” said Vicks. “Telone is one of the more promising alternatives, but a known carcinogen and under severe restrictions, so short of quitting growing strawberries, we may not get to a complete phase out for some time.”

That said, Wasson estimates that farmers grew 30 percent of the 2003 berry crop without relying on methyl bromide and that once the data from 2004 is compiled the figure should reach 40 percent. In addition to other toxic chemicals and new application techniques switches to organic growing are responsible for declining dependency.

Senior scientist at Pesticide Action Network North America, Susan Kegley, Ph.D., thinks moves toward organic farming are on target. “One of the things we’re trying to facilitate is for people from the EPA and USDA to talk with sustainable ag people who are farming without fumigants so that we can get research money for viable alternatives that don’t require toxic substances,” Kegley said. “Our government subsidizes so many things. If we’re going to put billions into energy bills, why not help our farmers transition away from chemicals and have subsidies go to those who reduce their use of fumigants.”

Owner of Pacific Gold, Larry Eddings, who leases 1000 acres for farming berries and currently has a tenth of that in organic production says it’s not that easy. “The truth in the berry business is that on the conventional side, we’re making very little money. It struck me 8 years ago that there was a lot of talk in the organic world, so I’ve been turning some of my production that way. It’s turned out pretty well and I like it a lot. We grow lovely berries, not gnarly little things with worm holes it them like I thought organics were before we got into this.”

“Still, in my opinion, methyl bromide is a whipping boy,” Eddings added. “The amount from commercial agriculture that goes into the atmosphere is a very small percentage of the overall amounts, some of which come from natural sources. Also there’s very little science that says our practices are doing damage,” Eddings said. “Having said all that, I know I’m on the wrong side of the politically correct spectrum and methyl bromide will eventually go away. It’s going to be really hard on the strawberry industry, though.”

Sacramento Bee editorial agrees with Eddings, but underscores the need to move in a more earth-friendly direction. “Absent a technological breakthrough, strawberry farming without methyl bromide would mean higher costs for farms, which means higher costs for consumers….If every farmer in every country has to live by these rules, however, it ought to be a price consumers should be willing to live with. Earth can’t live without its ozone layer.”

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