(pt.3) Salinas forum sparks fumigant debate

Jun. 13, 2013   The Californian.com

Growers of leafy greens and other vegetables benefit because crops are rotated on an annual basis between strawberries and vegetables. When vegetables are planted a year after strawberries, the vegetable grower benefits because the soil fumigation leaves a relatively pest-free environment.

The growers’ argument that there are no viable alternatives was echoed by a strawberry specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension, a network of farm advisers and researchers.

“The soils around Castroville are loaded with pathogens,” said Mark Bolda, a farm adviser and researcher based out of UC Cooperative Extension’s Watsonville facility. “If you don’t fumigate the soil, it cannot be used to grow strawberries.”

Norm Groot, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau, told officials that unless consumers are willing to double or triple what they pay at the supermarket, there is no viable economic alternative. He added that if chloropicrin is ultimately banned before there is a workable alternative, it could have unintended consequences for agriculture in the state.

“What will happen is that crops will go elsewhere, including offshore where things aren’t grown necessarily like we would want,” he said, adding that we need to let science develop alternatives before banning critical tools.

But “offshore” can also mean Europe, a point noted by Salinas veterinarian Beverly Bean in her comments to DPR officials.

“These gases are banned in Europe and alternatives are used [there] to grow crops in a manner which preserves the environment and the health of the people,” Bean said. “Clearly, soil fumigants are not viable, long-term options for pest control. We must develop large scale, safe and innovative farming practices and implement them without further delay. California must increase its investment in fumigant alternatives so that farmers can transition to safer methods.”

Another point that drew the ire of environmentalists is the DPR’s plan to have the people who apply chloropicrin to be the first line of defense should the gas escape its plastic tarps. If they begin to develop a rash or respiratory problems then the DPR is establishing protocols for an emergency response, an idea Dana Perls with the nonprofit Pesticide Watch said is tantamount to using “human controls.”

“Ethically, we just don’t do chemical testing on people,” she said.

DPR officials said the dozens of comments generated from the Monday and Tuesday forums in Salinas will soon be posted on their website: http://www.cdpr.ca.gov/ .