The state’s own Department of Pesticide Regulation had advised in a report against approving the gas, methyl iodide. And several Nobel prize winners asked the U.S. EPA not to approve it. (It did.) According to farmers, there are a number of alternatives to the stuff, including  solarization, anaerobic soil disinfestation and natural pesticides. And it’s especially important to use safe materials only in strawberries, which hold the chemicals they’re treated with. (More background in this TGL post.)

Lobbying for methyl iodide, we have a single company, the largest pesticide manufacturer in the world, Arysta LifeScience. The Strawberry Growers Commission – the people who employ the people who’d be breathing the stuff in – had weakly declined to take a position.

The state is accepting public comment through June 14. Let them know that people trump profits.

Correction: Approval of methyl iodide has been proposed but not yet finalized, pending public comment.