Pesticide Use in California: More of the same

Fall 1999, Vol. 21, No. 73

Pesticides continue to threaten California’s ecosystems and farmworkers according to two new reports released by Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR), of which Food First is a member, and Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA).

CPR’s report, Disrupting the Balance: Ecological Impacts of Pesticides in California, calls on the California Environmental Protection Agency and the federal government to ban three pesticides–the organophosphate insecticides diazinon and chlorpyrifos, and the carbamate insecticide carbofuran–because of their devastating impact on birds, fish, and other wildlife.

Over the last 30 years, the agrochemical industry has turned from organochlorines such as DDT toward neurotoxic organophosphate and carbamate pesticides. Use of these toxic nerve poisons continues to grow, with an eighteen percent increase in California between 1991 and 1995. Some seventeen million pounds of organophosphate and carbamate pesticides are applied annually in urban and agricultural settings…

Also in this issue of News & Views:

• The Congressional Progressive Caucus “Human Rights Bus Tour”
• Food First 25 Years in Review: The early years

• NV21_73 Fall 1999 Vol 21 #73 Pesticide Use in California