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SALINAS, Calif. – There’s a battle in Sacramento to reverse a controversial decision approving the use of Methyl Iodide on our California agriculture fields.

The product, manufactured by Arysta LifeScience (the brand name is called Midas), has been approved in 47 states and 6 countries. Methyl iodide is used mainly on strawberry crops and is seen as a replacement for methyl bromide, which is being phased out across the globe on concerns it depletes the ozone.

Central Coast Assemblyman, Bill Monning (D-Carmel) is fighting the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) after it gave methyl Iodide it’s stamp of approval in December, 2010. Monning has said, “Methyl iodide, while it is not an ozone depleter, is perhaps more highly toxic, more unstable in the ground. We think it poses even greater risk than even methyl bromide to work force and rural residents.”

Monning has joined an advocacy group called Pesticide Watch.

According to Arysta LifeScience, the first research on their methyl iodide product (midas) as a pesticide began in the early 1990’s at University California Riverside. It was submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency in 2002 and was approved for use in October, 2007