fall 2003 pesticides and you...contents beyond pesticides/national coalition against the misuse of...

Pesticides and YouNews from Beyond Pesticides / National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides (NCAMP)

Fall 2003Volume 23, Number 3

Oppression and Farmworker Health in a Global EconomyA call to action for liberty, freedom and justice

• Voices for Pesticide Reform: The Stories of Those Who Have Been Harmed byPesticides • Back to School Organizing for Safer Pest Management •

Letter from Washington

—Jay Feldman is executive directorof Beyond Pesticides.

“If you do the right thing long enough, then good things will hap-pen – like contracts, agreements, breakthroughs.”

Baldemar Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organiz-ing Committee (FLOC), told us this in the speech he gaveto Beyond Pesticides’ 21st National Pesticide Forum, Toxics

in the Age of Globalization, in Austin, Texas, April 26, 2003. (Ex-cerpts of his speech are transcribed for this issue of Pesticides andYou (PAY).) Mr. Velasquez should know. He formed FLOC in 1967,led a historic 600-mile march of 100 farmworkers from FLOC head-quarters in Toledo, Ohio to Campbell’s Soup Company offices inCamden, New Jersey in 1983, and three years later negotiated thefirst three-way pact in labor history, one between Campbell’s, Ohiotomato growers, and the farmworkers who harvest the fields. Now,the target is Mt. Olive Pickle Company, as the struggle for adequatewages, health benefits and safety continues.

Baldemar Velasquez teaches us to understand and attack spe-cific problems within the broader picture. He says, “Certainly theenvironmental issues that farmworkers face are not limited tothe exposure to dangerous pesticides. Generally, the working con-ditions of farmworkers are a national disgrace. It is not only dis-graceful, but it is shameful for the richest country in the world tocontinue to ignore and neglect some of the hardest working peoplein America.” Pesticides are a piece, an important piece, of theinjustices and inhumane conditions that farmworkers endure.Mr. Velasquez asks us to join the boycott of Mt. Olive in an effortto change the conditions that we all believe are not acceptable.

Looking at the larger pictureThe news pieces that are contained in this issue of PAY paint avivid picture. The picture looks something like this: data on thehazards of pesticides keeps stacking up, at the same time thatsuccessful experiences with alternatives are recorded. Peopleare harmed, endangered species are threatened, while the courtsintervene to stop hazardous pesticide use. This picture capturesa cycle that repeats itself over and over again.

In this issue, we cover the bad news: pesticides linked tobirth defects, the death of 58 cows due to pesticide poisoning,and new documentation of continued contamination of the watersupply. But then, we cover the good news: integrated pest man-agement (the kind that eliminates toxic chemical use) works inan East Harlem study conducted by Mount Sinai Medical Cen-ter, while researchers document microscopic crustaceans thatlove to eat mosquito larvae, a promising alternative to pesticideuse. Meanwhile, the courts are stopping the bad guys: restrict-ing 54 pesticides that threaten endangered species, extendingthe right-to-sue to Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Or-ange, and stopping the indiscriminate aerial application of haz-ardous herbicides in the U.S.-funded Columbian drug war. EvenEPA jumped in by issuing the largest fine in its history for vio-lations of the [farm]worker protection standards.

Doing the Right ThingPersevering for change

This issue of PAY also reminds us that the marketplace is adangerous place, with misinformation about product hazards.At the same time, we see the power of local and state govern-ments being used to protect public health and safety, incrediblyimportant in the absence of adequate federal protection. Thewood-treating industry is still misleading the public on the safetyof pressure-treated wood with arsenic and chromium VI, as it issold in stores and by construction companies for decks andfences until supplies are exhausted. This goes on despite thewood treating industry agreements with EPA to warn consum-ers about product hazards. And, the state of Maine jumped into expedite the federal phase-out of treated wood, while theCity of Lyndhurst, Ohio voted ‘no’ on spraying for mosquitoes,given data and uncertainties about pesticide hazards and thelack of efficacy associated with spray programs.

Up against special interestsThe power of change rests with our ability to keep pushing anddoing the right thing in our purchasing practices, town and citypolicies, school policy and through increased accountability ofelected officials. We must call for protection of workers and thepublic in a political climate that seemingly ignores our call andundermines agreements to move changes in laws that are intendedto protect health and safety. As we know, special interest politics inCongress are pervasive. Here’s a pesticide industry example. De-spite Congressional agreements back in 1996 to increase regulatoryreview of pesticide impacts on children under the Food Quality Pro-tection Act (FQPA), the chemical industry for the past six years hasorchestrated legislative riders that deny EPA the funds to move theprogram ahead. That may change this year with an effort now un-derway in Congress. (For more information, go to www.beyondpesticides.org.) Any way you look at it, the chemical industry,having the upper hand in Congress, has shifted the costs of review-ing its highly profitable chemicals to taxpayers, reduced its bill byhundreds of millions of dollars, and slowed the review process.

Power of persistenceWe are doing the right thing. Increasingly, practitioners of pest

management, want to do the rightthing, standing up with us in pub-lic forums, attaining new standardsof safety, rejecting risk-assessmentbased claims of safety, and embrac-ing the precautionary principle ofavoiding the use of toxic chemicalswhenever possible. Best wishes fora happy and healthy holiday season!

Contents

Beyond Pesticides/National Coalition Against the Misuse of PesticidesVol. 23, No. 3, 2003 Pesticides and You Page 1

Contents

page 4

page 9

page 18

Printed on 100% post consumerwaste with soy inks. Cover onQuestTM, 100% non-deinked, non-rebleached post consumer waste.

Pesticides and You © 2003 (ISSN 0896-7253)is published 4 times a year by Beyond Pesti-cides. Beyond Pesticides, founded in 1981as the National Coalition Against the Mis-use of Pesticides (NCAMP), is a voice forpesticide safety and alternatives and is a non-profit, tax-exempt membership organiza-tion; donations are tax-deductible.

National Headquarters:701 E Street, SE,Washington DC 20003ph: 202-543-5450 fx: 202-543-4791email: [email protected]: www.beyondpesticides.org

Articles in this newsletter may be repro-duced without Beyond Pesticides’ permis-sion unless otherwise noted. Please creditBeyond Pesticides for reproduced material.

BEYOND PESTICIDES STAFFJay Feldman, Executive DirectorKagan Owens, Program DirectorJohn Kepner, Project DirectorShawnee Hoover, Special Projects DirectorMeghan Taylor, Public Education AssociateJake Lubarsky, InternAsheesh Siddique, InternTerry Shistar, Ph.D., Science Consultant

PESTICIDES AND YOUJay Feldman, Publisher, EditorJohn Kepner, EditorMeghan Taylor, IllustratorFree Hand Press, TypesettingJay Feldman, John Kepner, Kagan Owens,Meghan Taylor, Contributors

BEYOND PESTICIDESBOARD OF DIRECTORSRuth Berlin, LCSW-C, Maryland PesticideNetwork, Annapolis, MDCissy Bowman, Indiana Certified Organic,Clayton, INLaura Caballero, Lideres Campesinas enCalifornia, Greenfield, CAAlan Cohen, Bio-Logical PestManagement, Washington, DCShelley Davis, Farmworker Justice Fund,Washington, DCLorna McMahon, McMahon Family Farm,Tiptonville, TNJay Feldman, Beyond Pesticides,Washington, DCTessa Hill, Kids for Saving Earth World-wide, Plymouth, MNGene Kahn, Small Planet Foods, SedroWooley, WALani Malmberg, Ecological Services,Lander, WYPaul Repetto, Boulder, CORobina Suwol, California Safe Schools,Van Nuys, CATerry Shistar, Ph.D., Kansas Chapter,Sierra Club, Lawrence, KSGregg Small, Washington ToxicsCoalition, Seattle, WAAllen Spalt, Carrboro, NCAudrey Thier, Williamsburg, MA

Affiliations shown for informational purposes only

2 MailDealing with Pressure-Treated Wood at School;Skeeters in the Backyard; Concerns from theFamily of a Pesticide Applicator

4 Washington, DCGroup Sues EPA for Failing to Protect Endan-gered Wildlife from Atrazine; Judge Says EPAMust Protect Endangered Salmon; SupremeCourt Says Veterans Can Sue for AgentOrange Caused lllness; EPA Links BirthDefects to Common Herbicides; Restricting54 Pesticides; Columbia Court Says U.S.-Backed Aerial Spray Program Must Stop

6 Around the CountryOhio City Says No to West Nile Virus Mos-quito Spraying; Retailer of Pressure TreatedWood Distributes Misleading lnformation toConsumers; East Harlem Study Proves IPMSuccessful and Economical; PesticidesSprayed on Nearby Peanut Patch Blamed for58 Cow Deaths; Maine Legislators Vote to BanSale of Arsenic-Treated Wood, Expedites Fed-eral Phase-Out; EPA Proposes Record Finesfor Farmworker Protection Violations; Pesti-cides on Tap in American Cities; Mosquito-Hungry Crustaceans Could Serve as Alterna-tive Mosquito Control

9 Oppression and FarmworkerHealth in a Global EconomyA call to action for liberty, freedom and justiceBy Baldemar Velasquez

18 Voices for Pesticide ReformThe stories of those who have beenharmed by pesticidesBy Meghan Taylor

21 Back To School Organizing forSafer Pest Managementby Kagan Owens

24 ResourcesTo lnherit the Earth: The landless movementand the struggle for a new Brazil

Mail

Beyond Pesticides/National Coalition Against the Misuse of PesticidesPage 2 Pesticides and You Vol. 23, No. 3, 2003

Dealing withPressure-TreatedWood at SchoolDear Beyond Pesticides,For over a year I have sent several lettersto my local school board in Peterbor-ough, Ontario, Canada, requesting thatthey consider replacement of the CCA-treated play equipment in the schoolyard.A year ago the superintendent emailedme and said they were having a meetingabout this issue and would keep me in-formed. I wanted them to test the soil(tiny pebbles) around the play structureto be sure our children were not beingcontaminated, and to also educate thechildren about at least washing theirhands before they ate their lunch – afterplaying on the equipment in the morn-ing. They continue to ignore my requests.How can I help make sure our childrenare protected?

Lisa RobbinsOntario, Canada

Dear Ms. Robbins,Thank you for the work you havedone thus far to protect childrenfrom the hazards of treated wood.It is important work since schoolsshould be safe, healthy places to maxi-mize children’s growth and learning. Thepresence of chemicals at schools, whetherthey are pesticides, cleaning fluids or pres-sure-treated wood, are a threat to childrensince their developing organ systems oftenmake them more sensitive to toxic exposure,and they take in more pesticides relative totheir body weight than adults. Pressure-treated wood presents a high risk, sincechromated copper arsenate (CCA) treatedwood, containing arsenic, is a widely usedwood for playground equipment. Althoughbeginning in January 2004, CCA wood canno longer be manufactured for this and otherresidential purposes, it can still be sold andused. Scientific studies prove that the threechemicals that make up CCA, namely ar-senic, hexavalent chromium (chromium VI)and copper, are leaching out of CCA-treatedwood into the soil around structures and onto

the surface of the treated wood. Scientistshave documented that children put theirhands into everything including theirmouths; but, of course, parents already knowthis. When you add all this together, the out-come is clear – children’s health is at riskbecause they are ingesting arsenic and chro-mium (VI) leaching from CCA-treated play-ground equipment.

Alternatives to this toxic playground equip-ment are available. Companies are now manu-facturing playsets using naturally pest and rotresistant wood, such as cedar and redwood.Among these are PlayNation PlaySystems (seewww.playset.com or call 800-445-PLAY) andCedarWorks Playsets (see www.cedarworks.com or call 800-GO-CEDAR).

You’ve taken the first step and reached outto school officials to educate them about thedangers of treated wood and the alternativesthat exist. When officials don’t respond to yourconcerns, turn to your community for help.

Start with your friends, family and neighbors.Let them know about the dangers children arefacing in their schoolyard each day, and thatsafer alternatives are out there. Many othercommunity members are affected by the useof pressure-treated playground equipment atschools, including the local Parent-TeacherAssociation, local environmental and publichealth groups, doctors and other concernedparents. Tools such as letter-writing cam-paigns and petitions will assist you in puttingthe pressure on school officials, as well as ineducating the rest of the community.

For more information about effectivelyorganizing a campaign, please contact BeyondPesticides. Additionally, see www.beyondpesticides.org for our Poison PlaygroundsResource Kit, a guide to protecting childrenfrom CCA-treated wood in the community.

Skeeters in theBackyardDear Beyond Pesticides,I am looking for information on how tomake my own remedy to rid my yard ofmosquitoes. The mosquitoes are so nu-merous that my five-year old cannot playoutside. I would prefer a natural way toget rid of the pests, if you can providethe information.

Lachelle Laksvia email

Dear Ms. Laks,Natural mosquito management is the way to go,since synthetic chemical use against mosquitoesposes a health risk. As far as personal repellents,researchers at Duke University Medical School(led by Dr. Mohamed Abou-Donia) have pub-lished findings demonstrating in laboratory stud-ies that frequent and prolonged application of

DEET, the widely used individual repellent,causes neurons to die in regions of the brainresponsible for muscle movements, learn-ing, memory and concentration—allsubtle effects. Laboratory animals ex-posed to average human doses of DEETperform far worse than untreated ani-mals on neurobehavioral tasks requir-

ing muscle coordination. Even morealarming are researchers’ findings that

low dose exposure to DEET in combina-tion with some pesticides sprayed by truck oraircraft for West Nile Virus show a synergisticor severely increased neurological effect. In April,Canada banned repellents with more than 30%DEET, as well as those mixed with sunscreen.

The first step to avoid using chemicals is topractice prevention by eliminating mosquitobreeding grounds in your yard. Rid your prop-erty of any standing water, including dishes thathold potted plants, overturned trashcan lids,watering cans, buckets and dripping outdoorfaucets. Damp areas of leaves could also serveas a breeding ground. This will provide long-termcontrol over mosquito populations and also con-trol populations before they mature and have achance to reproduce, transfer disease, and an-noy. If mosquitoes do breed, larvaciding allowscontrol measures to be used in targeted areas,while mosquito larvae are still concentrated inbreeding pools and before adult mosquitoes

edited by Meghan Taylor


Write Us!Whether you love us, disagreewith us or just want to speak yourmind, we want to hear from you.All mail must have a day timephone and verifiable address.Space is limited so some mail maynot be printed. Mail that is printedwill be edited for length and clar-ity. Please address your mail to:

Beyond Pesticides701 E Street, SEWashington, DC 20003fax: 202-543-4791email: [email protected]

spread throughout the community. Bacillusthuringiensis var. israelensis is one of the mostpopular and most effective least-toxic biologicalcontrols. It is a bacterial strain that, whensprayed into larval pools, is ingested by feedinglarvae and kills them. You can buy a productcalled Mosquito Dunks(tm) at your local lawnand garden store, in hardware stores, and insome catalogs and online from Real Goods,www.realgoods.com, 800-762-7365 and Peace-ful Valley, www.groworganic.com, 888-784-1722. Thedunks are safe for birdbaths,rain barrels, ponds, ditches,tree holes, roof gutters, un-used swimming pool—any-where water collects.

If your backyard is cur-rently infested with adultmosquitoes, there are severalpractices to consider employ-ing. Remain indoors in theevenings, when most mosquitoactivity occurs. Use screened-inporches instead of open porches. Useherbal repellents to ward off mosqui-toes, such as Skin-So-Soft or Herbal Armour.Reapply often. Herbs that repel mosquitoes in-clude cedarwood, garlic, lemongrass, frankin-cense, cinnamon, geranium, eucalyptus, basil,rosemary, cloves, peppermint, lemon balm (cit-ronella), onions, feverfew, thyme, and mari-gold. Essential oils of the herbs listed above arealso good repellents, though most are volatileorganic compounds and will bother someonewho is sensitive to scents. To mix your own es-sential oil repellent, add ten drops of essentialoil to two tablespoons of vegetable oil, stir, anddab a few drops on your skin or clothing. Preg-nant women should consult their doctors be-fore using essential oils.

An option for backyard control is the Mos-quito Magnet, a machine much like a gas grill,which burns propane gas that sends out a plumeof carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide attractsmosquitoes, which are then sucked in and killed.One magnet can control adult mosquitoes overan acre of land, though different levels of suc-cess have been reported. For more informa-tion see www.mosquitomagnet.com or callAmerican Biophysics Corp. at 877-699-8727.

Talk to your neighbors about non-toxic andleast-toxic mosquito management aroundtheir homes as well for best control.

Concerns from theFamily of a PesticideApplicatorDear Beyond Pesticides,I am trying to locate some informationregarding men’s health and pesticides. Myhusband is in the weed control business.How might the chemicals and fertilizers

affect his health? Hedoes not wear afacemask while work-ing so I don’t believethat he is properlyprotected. Also, doesthe danger extend toour entire family, es-

pecially if we try tohave a baby?

Sheila PedenOklahoma City, OK

Dear Ms. Peden,You are right to be concerned for your

husband’s health, and you should cer-tainly try to convince him to wear proper pro-tection should he continue to work with toxicchemicals. This includes wearing a chemicalmask, goggles, gloves, long sleeves and pants.However, the healthiest course of action wouldbe to avoid contact with the chemicals altogether.Pesticide applicators are likely to face an in-creased risk of suffering symptoms of chemicalexposure, because of their prolonged, intensiveexposure. Additionally, many applicators are ex-posed to a number of different chemicals, whichadds to their entire chemical body burden.

Many widely used herbicides pose a num-ber of health risks. 2,4-D is associated withcancer, birth defects, reproductive effects, neu-rotoxicity, and kidney and liver damage.Glyphosate, commonly known as Roundup,has been linked to reproductive effects and isalso a sensitizer and irritant. There are a hostof other synthetic herbicides available, eachwith their own set of adverse health effects.For a summary of these herbicides, contactBeyond Pesticides for a copy of Health Effectsof 36 Most Commonly Used Lawn Pesticides,or see www.beyondpesticides.org.

It is possible that these chemicals couldbe present in your own home if your hus-

band does not take the proper precautions.A recent study published in November 2001found that 2,4-D is easily tracked indoors,contaminating the air and surfaces insideresidences and exposing children at levels tentimes higher than preapplication levels.(Nishioka, M., et al., “Distribution of 2,4-Din Air and on Surfaces inside Residences af-ter Lawn Applications: Comparing ExposureEstimates from Various Media for YoungChildren,” Environmental Health Perspec-tives 109(11) (2001). Your husband shouldnot bring his work clothes inside the home,and should not wash his clothing with therest of the family’s laundry.

Let your husband know that viable al-ternatives exist to control weeds; methodsand products that are much safer for himand his entire family. The number of com-panies providing organic lawn care is on therise as the demand increases. Explore op-tions for work in these areas rather thanwith toxic chemicals.

Beyond Pesticides provides a free listingof lawn care and structural pest control com-panies that offer non-toxic and least-toxicalternatives in the Safety Source for PestManagement at www.beyondpesticides.org.We urge our readers who know of any com-panies that offer such services to notifyBeyond Pesticides.


Washington, DC

Group Sues EPA forFailing to ProtectEndangered Wildlifefrom AtrazineFighting to ban the cancer-causing pes-ticide atrazine, the Natural ResourcesDefense Council (NRDC), filed a law-suit against the Environmental Protec-tion Agency (EPA) on August 20, argu-ing that the agency, under the Endan-gered Species Act (ESA), has failed toprotect endangered species in theChesapeake Bay, Mississippi River, Mis-souri River, and other major midwesternand southern rivers from the herbicide.The weed killer atrazine has beenbanned in several European countriesand has contaminated drinking water inthe U.S. and abroad. More than onemillion Americans drink from watersupplies that are contaminated withatrazine at levels higher than EPA’sdrinking water standard (see “Pesticideson Tap in American Cities” in theAround the Country section of this issue).Atrazine runoff is considered a risk toendangered species. And, over thepast three years, several studieshave linked atrazine amphib-ian deformities. Yet, EPA hasleft this widely used herbi-cide on the market. NRDCalleges that EPA is permit-ting the widespread use ofatrazine even though theagency acknowledges theweed-killer might harmendangered species. “EPAknows that rivers andstreams across the countryare so contaminated withatrazine that sea turtlesand other endangered spe-cies are at risk,” said AaronColangelo, an NRDC staff at-torney. “But the agency is sit-ting on its hands.” NRDC is par-ticularly concerned about the threatatrazine poses to endangered sea turtlesin the Chesapeake Bay; salamanders inAustin, Texas; freshwater mussels inAlabama; and fish in the Midwest. The

group called on EPA to ban atrazinein June 2002 after studies showedit poses a significant threat to pub-lic health. Atrazine is one of themost widely used herbicides inthe U.S. Between 60 and 70 mil-lion pounds of atrazine are appliedannually to fields, golf courses andlawns. “Atrazine has been shown tocause developmental and reproductiveeffects in wildlife,” said Dr. KatherineSquibb, toxicology program director atthe University of Maryland School ofMedicine. “Atrazine exposure couldjeopardize the survival of a number ofendangered species.”

Judge Says EPA MustProtect EndangeredSalmon, Restricting54 PesticidesOn July 16, 2003, Federal District CourtJudge John Coughenour in Seattle ruledthat the Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA) is out ofcompliance with theEndangered SpeciesAct (ESA) and plansto impose restric-tions on 54 pesticideswhose uses contami-nate water and harmendangered salmonspecies. According tothe non-profit publicinterest law firm

Earthjustice, which is liti-gating the case on behalf ofthe Washington Toxics Coali-tion, Northwest Coalition forAlternatives to Pesticides andPacific Coast Federation ofFishermen’s Associations,Judge Coughenour ordered EPA

to begin the process of bringingits pesticide authorizations into

compliance with the law. The lawsuitis likely to result in hundreds of milesof no-spray buffers along streams andwaterways that stretch from Washing-ton to Southern California. Judge

Coughenour directed EPA, environ-mental groups and industry represen-tatives to try to negotiate the terms ofan order that he expects to issue fol-lowing the end of this year’s fall cropseason. The judge embraced no-spraybuffers of up to 100 yards for aerialspraying and 20 yards for ground spray-ing as a good starting point for devel-oping the new restrictions. “This ishuge,” said Patti Goldman, an attorneyfor Earthjustice. “Under the normal wayof doing business, nothing happensuntil the evidence is so strong that itknocks you over.” The U.S. Departmentof Agriculture, an advocate for chemi-cal-intensive agricultural practices, sub-mitted a study to the court that finds,in a worse case scenario, the judge’s de-cision could trigger crop losses inWashington and Oregon of more than$100 million annually. Experts on bothsides agree that these

Supreme Court SaysVeterans Can Suefor Agent OrangeCaused lllnessOn June 9, 2003, in a deadlocked 4-4 de-cision, Dow Chemical Co. v. Stephenson(No. 02-271), the U.S. Supreme Courtaffirmed a U.S. Court of Appeals for the2nd Circuit (NY) decision to hear a casebrought by Vietnam War veterans suf-fering the effects of Agent Orange ex-posure who believe they were not ad-equately represented by a 1985 class ac-


by John Kepner

tion settlement. The tie-vote, which au-tomatically upholds the lower court rul-ing, gives veteran and cancer victimDaniel Stephenson the right to argueagainst the manufacturer, Dow Chemi-cal Company. The court also or-dered the lower court to hear acase brought by another veteran.The 1985 settlement agree-ment established a $180million chemical com-pany fund that wasintended to payveteran claimsfor effects thatranged frombirth defects tocancer. Funds wereexhausted in 1997, after theplaintiff ’s disease was identified. Theveteran’s attorney, Gerson Smoger, said,“For the past nine years, we have beenworking to show that the Agent Orangeclass action settlement cannot standwhen the very victims of Agent Orangeare entitled to no compensation fromit.” Agent Orange was a 50-50 mixtureof the herbicides 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T,used to defoliate the Vietnam junglecanopy. 2,4,5-T was banned for use inthe U.S., but 2,4-D continues to be oneof the most widely used herbicides onhome lawns and in agriculture.

EPA Links BirthDefects to CommonHerbicidesOver the years, many studies have foundlinks between pesticides and birth de-fects. The latest study, led by DinaSchreinemachers, PhD, of EPA’s Na-tional Health and Environmental EffectsResearch Laboratory, and published inthe July 2003 issue of EnvironmentalHealth Perspectives (vol. 111, p. 1259-1264), suggests an association betweenrates of birth malformations and indi-rect measures of human exposure tochlorophenoxy herbicides, such as 2,4-D and MCPA, common weed killers soldcommercially and used in agriculture.The study compares 43,500 birth out-

comes between 1995 and 1997, com-piled by the National Center for HealthStatistics in selected counties of Min-nesota, North Dakota, South Dakota andMontana. Dr. Schreinemachers finds

that in high-wheat counties,combined circulatory and

respiratory malforma-tions increase by more

than two-fold, andmusculoskeletal

mal formationsincrease by50% relativeto low-wheatc o u n t i e s .Death ratesfrom birth

mal format ionsamong male infants in high-wheat coun-ties are more than twice the rates in low-wheat counties. In addition, the studyfinds an increased chance of circulatoryand respiratory (excluding heart) mal-formations for infants conceived fromApril to June, a time thatmore than 85% ofthe acreage treatedwith chlorophenoxyherbicides is appliedon durum wheat inthe states studied.Chlorophenoxyherbicides arewidely used in theU.S. for the controlof broad-leaf weeds,not only in wheatfarming, but also formaintenance of parks,home lawns, roadsides,and utilities rights of way.According to EPA’s most recent marketestimates, 2,4-D is the most commonpesticide used in the non-agriculturalsector, with 7-9 million pounds usedannually in the U.S., and is the seventhmost common pesticide used in agri-culture, at 28-33 million pounds.2,4-D has been associated with elevatedrates of cancer in studies of exposedfarmers and dogs. It is anirritant, nervetoxin, and can damage the reproduc-tive system.

Columbia CourtSays U.S.-BackedAerial SprayProgram Must StopDue the lack of available data on thehealth and environmental safety of theherbicide used in Colombia’s U.S.-funded drug crop eradication program,a Colombian Court ordered the pro-gram to be halted on June 26, 2003. Ac-cording to the Associated Press (AP), theruling is the result of a lawsuit filed byClaudia Sampedro, who represents en-vironmentalists, human rights activists,and small farmers staunchly opposed tothe spray program. The decision comesjust over a month after Colombian’sConstitutional Court ordered the gov-ernment to consult on the program withindigenous communities, which islargely impacted by the program’s aerialspraying of the herbicide glyphosate.

The spray program, which the U.S.finances as part of its

multibillion-dollarColombian aidpackage, is de-signed to eradicatecoca and otherplants used tomanufacture ille-gal drugs. Asidefrom causing ad-verse health ef-fects, such as skin

rashes and otherailments, critics say

the program indis-criminately wipes out

legitimate subsistence crops, naturalplants, and kills birds, mammals andaquatic life. Fumigation is not the so-lution," said Ivan Gerardo Guerrero,governor of Putumayo Province, whichproduces 60 percent of the nation'scoca. "It has a great defect. It doesn'treally take into account the humanbeing. All it cares about are satellitepictures. The aerial spray program willcontinue as the Colombian governmentappeals the ruling.

Pesticides and You Vol. 23, No. 3, 2003

Around the Country

Beyond Pesticides/National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides

Ohio City Says No toWest Nile VirusMosquito SprayingPutting common sense and sound sci-ence before fear and public panic, theCity of Lyndhurst, Ohio, a suburb ofCleveland, passed a landmark ordinanceprohibiting the spraying of pesticides tocombat mosquitoes that may be infectedwith West Nile virus. The July 7, 2003action follows a community forum or-ganized by the Ohio Coalition Againstthe Misuse of Pesticides in which a panelof experts on mosquito management andhealth effects of pesticides discussed thehazards and the lack of efficacy associ-ated with the spraying of adulticides, orpesticides used to spray adult mosqui-toes. In adopting the groundbreakingban, the City Council pointed to othermosquito management methods that areknown and accepted to be more effec-tive. The council stated, “There is sub-stantial belief that the more effective wayof controlling the mosquito populationis by larvacide treatment and thorougheducation of the city’s residents regard-ing methods and procedures to mini-mize exposure to the virus.” In adopt-ing the ordinance, the council foundthat, “The risk/benefit analysis con-ducted by experts clearly indicates thatthe dangers of WNV are minimal andaffect a very small segment of the popu-lation and that the long-term health and

environmental risks of spraying withsynthetic pesticides poses a muchgreater risk.” Other communities, suchas Ft. Worth, TX and Washington, DC,have adopted administrative programsthat do not spray adulticides for WestNile virus. Beyond Pesticides believesthat spraying adulticides does not ap-pear to be an effective way to preventdeath or illness associated with insect-borne West Nile virus.

Retailer of PressureTreated WoodDistributes Misleadinglnformation toConsumersIn June 2003, Beyond Pesticides obtainedbrochures containing false and mislead-ing consumer information distributed byHome Depot to consumers of chromatedcopper arsenate (CCA) pressure treatedwood. Along with the Consumer Infor-mation Sheets (CIS) that retailers sup-ply as part of an agreement between thewood preserving industry and EPA, thehome improvement superstore was alsodistributing a ‘ProWood’ brochure en-titled ‘Questions & Answers ConcerningPressure Treated Lumber,’ a documentapparently meant to contradict ordownplay safety and precautionary in-formation on the CIS. In a July 10, 2003

letter to EPA, Beyond Pesticides cited anumber of false and misleading state-ments. As of publication, EPA has notresponded. The statements include: Usesame care as with any wood...when saw-ing, wear safety glasses and a dust mask[This statement refers to the CIS but thendownplays the danger of the arsenic-laden sawdust]. How Safe is CCA? VerySafe [This statement suggests that CCA-treated wood could be used anywhere,also safety claims are a violation of theFederal Insecticide, Fungicide and Roden-ticide Act (FIFRA)]. Can Treated Wood beUsed in Gardening? Yes... to constructraised vegetable and flower beds [This as-sertion contradicts EPA’s mandated warn-ing not to use treated wood where thepreservative may become a componentof food]. I’ve Heard That ChildrenShouldn’t Play on Decks & PlaygroundEquipment Made of Treated Wood? Relax.That’s simply untrue. CCA treated wood isfully approved and widely used to buildplayground equipment [The statementsuggests that no precautions are needed,and might even induce people to buildnew playground equipment out of CCA].In its letter to EPA, Beyond Pesticidescalls for the agency to immediately con-tact ProWood and the other treated woodindustry groups to advise them that thispractice is unacceptable and in violationof its agreement. The letter also calls foran immediate enforcement investigationof this situation and for appropriate sanc-tions. In February 2002, EPA announceda voluntary agreement with the woodtreatment industry that stops productionof CCA-treated wood by December 31,2003. Retailers can continue to sell offexisting stocks without notifying con-sumers of the hazards and phaseout.

East Harlem StudyProves lPM Success-ful and EconomicalTaming an urban cockroach infestationcan be a tough job. Toxic pesticide treat-ments can be costly and usually knockdown the population for only a few days.After all, can we really expect sprays to


by John Kepner

wipe out colonies of the only creaturesbelieved to be able to survive a nuclearwinter? The only way we have a chancein this situation is a program that inte-grates prevention, source reduction, sani-tation and control. A recent study by theMount Sinai Children’s EnvironmentalHealth and Disease Prevention ResearchCenter, in partnership with two EastHarlem, New York City communityhealth centers, reveals that an IntegratedPest Management (IPM) program signifi-cantly decreases cockroach infestationsand is cost-effective. The report, “Inte-grated Pest Management in an UrbanCommunity – A Successful Partnershipfor Prevention,” published July 2, 2003,appeared in the online edition of Environ-mental Health Perspectives. The studytracks a group of East Harlem families thatreceived individually tailored IPM edu-cation, repairs, least-toxic pest controlapplication and supplies, along with bi-weekly pest monitoring for four months.The results show that after six months theIPM households with cockroaches de-clined by 39 to 80.5 percent, while thecontrol group’s cockroach levels wereunchanged. The researchers also con-cluded that the cost of the tailored IPMprogram is equal to or lower than con-ventional pesticide control methods, in-cluding taking into account the cost ofstructural repairs. The report is availableonline at http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2003/6069/abstract.html or through BeyondPesticides for $3 ppd.

Pesticides Sprayedon Nearby PeanutPatch Blamed for 58Cow DeathsAuthorities in Baldwin County, Alabamaare blaming Temik, a restricted use insec-ticide product containing the active in-gredient aldicarb, as the likely culprit inthe death of 58 cows on a farm near Mo-bile on June 6, 2003. The case was notonly the state’s largest loss of livestock inseveral years but also unique because thecattle showed no signs of struggle. “Thesecattle died pretty much instantly,” Dr.

Frazier told the Mobile Register. “Some ofthese animals looked like they died justwhere they lay.” Initially state agriculturalinvestigators suspected that an infectiousdisease, such as anthrax, had killed thecattle. This has been ruled out. Results ofthe tests reveal that the organophosphateinsecticide was applied to a nearby pea-nut patch, also owned by the same farmer,where the dead cattle were found.Dr. Frazier hypothesizesthat the pesticides mayhave accumulated afterrecent heavy rains.“This is a horrible di-saster for this farm fam-ily,” Marla Faver, anagent with the AlabamaCooperative ExtensionSystem told the MobileRegister. “This is a large sumof money.” Brood cows, like theones that died, cost around $1,000each because they can produce calves.Organophosphate pesticides, one of themost acutely toxic classes of pesticides,affect the nervous system and are syner-gistic with other chemicals, includingsome pharmaceuticals. Aldicarb, identi-fied as the cause of the poisonings, is veryacutely toxic, but has only been bannedin areas of the country where it has causedgroundwater contamination.

Maine LegislatorsVote to Ban Sale ofArsenic-TreatedWood, ExpeditesFederal Phase-OutCould you imagine if the National High-way Traffic Safety Administration foundthat a certain model of car had failingbreaks that contributed to thousands ofcar crashes, yet gave the manufacturertwo years to stop selling the vehicle? Ofcourse not! Most dangerous products,from cars to toys, are recalled immedi-ately. Not so with pesticides. EPA typi-cally allows “banned” pesticides to beused through a lengthy phase-out pro-cess. So when EPA announced that ar-

senic-laden pressure treated wood wasbeing phased-out, but allowed produc-tion to continue for another two yearsand sales to continue indefinitely, Mainelegislators took matters into their ownhands. Despite the opposing force of thelumber and wood treatment industry,the Maine legislature passed a bill to ex-pedite the federal phase-out of CCA-

treated wood and set a stopsale date. The Maine law

will prohibit the sale ofall residential uses asoutlined by EPA(such as decks andpatios, picnic tables,playground equip-ment, walkways/boardwalks, land-scaping timbers, and

fencing) by April 1,2004. Under the fed-

eral agreement, existingresidential CCA-treated

wood and structures may continue tobe sold and used, and could be stock-piled and sold for years to come, or evenimported from overseas. In addition, theMaine law requires the Bureau of Healthto develop an informational brochurefor consumers on arsenic hazards fromwell water and treated wood, includingthe need to coat treated wood with asealant on an annual basis to reduce ar-senic exposure. Arsenic is a known hu-man carcinogen with a plethora of acuteeffects including eye irritation, nausea,vomiting, and diarrhea, characteristicskin lesions, decreased production ofred and white blood cells, abnormalheart function, blood vessel damage,liver and/or kidney damage, and im-paired nerve function causing a “pins-and needles” feeling.

EPA Proposes RecordFines for FarmworkerProtection ViolationsOn June 3, 2003, the U.S. Environmen-tal Protection Agency (EPA) announcedfines against David Petrocco Farms,Brighton, CO, for violations of the Fed-

Around the Country by John Kepner


eral Insecticide, Fungicide, and RodenticideAct (FIFRA) Worker Protection Standard(WPS), a regulation aimed at reducingthe risk of pesticide poisonings and in-juries among agricultural workers andpesticide handlers. EPA is proposing acivil penalty of $231,990 for 229 viola-tions, the largest proposed federal WPSmisuse penalty in EPA history of the WPSand FIFRA. In 2001, David PetroccoFarms, which employs about 250 mostlyseasonal workers, received a writtenwarning notice from EPA documentingWPS violations that included a failure todisplay pesticide safety, emergency, andapplication information for its workers.In a follow-up inspection conducted in2002, EPA inspectors found that thecompany still failed to post pesticide-specific application information about allthe pesticides applied within the last 30days in a central location, accessible toall of their workers. Specific pesticideapplication information is crucial in ob-taining the best medical care in case ofemergency. Data from the U.S. Bureau ofLabor Statistics show that agriculturalworkers suffer from high rates of illnesscommonly correlated with chemical us-age at a rate of tens of thousands of re-ported illnesses each year. Workers maybe injured from direct spray, drift or resi-due left by pesticides, and handlers faceadditional risks from spills, splashes, in-halation or inadequate protective equip-ment. State agencies generally have pri-mary jurisdiction for enforcing WPS mis-use violations. EPA, however, has pri-mary jurisdiction in Wyoming and par-tial primary jurisdiction in Colorado.EPA will also prosecute cases referred toit by the states.

Pesticides on Tap inAmerican CitiesA debate has surfaced over whether it’sbetter to drink bottled water or tap water.Bottled water might taste great, but theplastics might leach pthalates andbisphenol A, not to mention the pollu-tion associated with plastic manufactureand shipping. So, is it safer to return to

your local tap water? The answer seemsto depend on where you live. A new re-port by the Natural Resources DefenseCouncil (NRDC), released June 2003,finds that the drinking water of many U.S.cities is contaminated with pesticides, ar-senic, lead, fuels, and germs. Accordingto the report, What’s On Tap? GradingDrinking Water in U.S. Cities, residents ofChicago are drinking from the best mu-nicipal water supply in the country. Butresidents of Fresno, Phoenix, Boston, Bal-timore, and Atlanta receive the lowest rat-ings of the 19 cities in the study. The re-port focuses on the effects of aging infra-structure and source water pollution, spe-cifically attacking the Bushadministration’s rollbacks of wa-ter quality regulations as amajor cause of urban wa-ter woes. NRDC warnslegislators thatif swift actionto protectAmerica’s wa-ter is not taken,the situationcould worsenrapidly. The re-port presents NRDC’sassessment of three problemareas: water quality and compliance,source water protection, and right-to-know compliance. It concludes that theproposed efforts of the Bush administra-tion to rewrite the Clean Water Act (CWA)would severely reduce the Act’s regulatorypower, threatening watersheds, streams,wetlands, and drinking water sources withunprecedented levels of contaminationand toxicity. NRDC notes that certainharmful contaminants reoccur in multiplesystems: lead (entering drinking waterdue to pipe corrosion), chlorination by-products that may cause cancer (such ashaloacetic acids), and atrazine (an endo-crine disruptor and cancer-causing pesti-cide). Other notable contaminants foundin American drinking water includerocket fuel, arsenic, and Cryptos-poridium, a disease-carrying bacterium.The full report is available at www.nrdc.org/water/drinking or by calling NRDC at212-727-2700.

Mosquito-HungryCrustaceansCould Serve asAlternativeMosquito ControlResearchers at the University of Floridahave announced success in using micro-scopic crustaceans called copepods,which love to eat mosquito larvae, tomanage mosquitoes without using pes-ticides. Jorge Rey, PhD, a professor ofentomology with the University ofFlorida’s Institute of Food and Agricul-

tural Sciences, believes thatcopepods may be the

most successfulbiological control

for mosquitoes,eating up to90% of thelarvae and theability to sur-vive at or nearfreezing tem-peratures for ex-

tended periods oftime. “We’re using a

native organism to control mos-quitoes when they breed in standing wa-ter, usually in ponds, tires and otheropen containers,” said Dr. Rey. “By add-ing copepods to the water, we can killmosquito larvae before they becomeadults that may spread West Nile andother diseases.” The copepod species Dr.Rey is testing, Macrocyclops albidus, isvery aggressive toward its prey. In fact,the copepods will kill the mosquito lar-vae even when they are not looking fora meal. “They will attack the larvae andmaim it so it’s not going to live and thendrop it,” he said. “We don’t know whythey behave this way – it might be a re-flex action or they’re just being mean.”The copepod is native to Florida andcommon throughout the world andposes no danger to people, animals orplants. However, they don’t exist in ev-ery body of water and therefore wouldhave to be introduced in order to be ef-fective on a wide scale.


Baldemar Velasquez, human rights activist and founder andpresident of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)AFL-CIO, headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, was born in Pharr,Texas in 1947. His parents were migrant farmworkers, and hebegan working in the fields at age six, picking berries and to-matoes. He formed FLOC in 1967. In 1983, Mr. Velasquez led ahistoric 600-mile march of 100 farmworkers from FLOC head-quarters in Toledo to Campbell’s Soup Company headquartersin Camden, New Jersey. Three years later, the migrant work-ers, growers and Campbell’s announced a three-way pact inwhich the growers agreed to give farmworkers limited medicalinsurance, a paid holiday and a wage increase. It was the firstthree-way pact in labor history.

What follows are excerpts of a talk and singing by Mr. Velasquezat Beyond Pesticides’ 21st National Pesticide Forum, Toxics inthe Age of Globalization, Austin, Texas, April 26, 2003.

Organizers have to get the word out anyway they can.We talk, we sing, we stand on our heads – whateverit takes. I appreciate the invitation to be here today.

I really respect Beyond Pesticides and all the brothers andsisters that work with this group to educate the public aboutthis very serious issue. I want to focus this morning on thebroader picture.

Oppression and Farmworker Healthin a Global EconomyA call to action for liberty, freedom and justice

By Baldemar Velasquez

Certainly the environmental issues that farmworkers faceare not limited to the exposure to dangerous pesticides. Gen-erally, the working conditions of farmworkers are a nationaldisgrace. It is not only disgraceful, but it is shameful for therichest country in the world to continue to ignore and ne-glect some of the hardest working people in America.

NAFTA & Immigrant farmworkersTraditional Mexican workers who have migrated from Texas,Florida and other places to the west coast, midwest and theeast coast to harvest vegetables, are being joined now by ahuge wave of immigrant workers from Mexico and CentralAmerica who are invading the U.S. This is no surprise con-sidering our trade policies and our economic policies withour neighbors south of our border. We have now the flushingout of the truth that is coming to bear.

When they negotiated the North American Free Trade Agree-ment (NAFTA) with Mexico, just about every Mexican groupwas in favor of it. I remember sitting in on some meetings withthe various unions of the U.S. and Mexico that were arguingabout NAFTA. Everybody and their mother in Mexico was forthis trade agreement, because they all thought it would attractAmerican dollars and create more businesses and more jobs. Some


of the biggest supporters of that legislation were the Mexicanpeasants, the small farmers of Mexico, who thought they weregoing to export their products without tariffs at the border.

But now the chicken is coming home to roost, so to speak.Now the Mexican farmworkers are turning around, because thetrade agreement has devastated the countryside in Mexico. Ithas devastated the coffee industry, the corn industry, becauseMexican farmers cannot compete with subsidized agriculture.So now the Mexican peasants are calling for a repeal and a rene-gotiation of that trade agreement. And this is true of some of themost conservative organizations in Mexico, like theConfedernacion de Nacional Campesina (CNC) that has mil-lions of members. Even they are turning against these agree-ments. They are beginning to see the immediate suffering that isbeing imposed upon the people because of our trade policies.

What’s happening to those workers? They have to go some-where to make a living. So they’re coming to the U.S., any-where they can. They’re going to the urban areas of Mexico.They inundate the cities, saturate the job market, and there’san economic shift northward to wherever they can find jobs.

The declining U.S. workforceIn America, we have a declining worker population. Evenall of our statistical geniuses in Washington are indicatingthat in the next 15 years we are going to need an additionalfive million workers, which our population will not gener-ate. In other words, we’re going to need a workforce, andwe don’t have any people being born in the U.S. to grow upto be workers to fill the job market. So we’re going to needthese workers. America needs these immigrant workers.

Right now, the workers who are coming north have com-pletely changed the demographic of the population in the deepsouth of the U.S. In North Carolina alone, where we are doingour Mt. Olive Campaign,1 NC officials indicate there are at least400,000 immigrant workers, mostly from Mexico, some fromGuatemala and Central American countries, in four basic indus-tries: agriculture, poultry, landscaping and construction. Over100,000 of those are required just for agriculture. And they areall undocumented workers, with the exception of 10,000-11,000authorized foreign (H2A) workers under the U.S. Departmentof Labor program.2

But whether you come as an illegal worker or under the H2Aprogram, which North Carolina is the biggest user of in the coun-try, it’s a way for industry to attract a cheap exploitable workforce.Other workers, African American and white workers have leftthose jobs and gone onto better pastures, so to speak. There isno one in the workforce to fill this void, so this immigrant workerpopulation is filling it. You may have heard about the slaverycases of south Florida.3 What is happening there is endemic ofwhat’s happening all over the deep south.

We organize a lot of immigrant workers in NC. We havesigned up a couple thousand in three weeks. I’ve asked themtheir work history and what they’ve done in the last 16 months,and how they got to the U.S. Invariably, they work in a job thathas high turnover in any one of the four basic industries. Theyfear exposure and getting caught. So when the going gets hot,

(To the melody of “Crying My Heart Out Over You”)

Off somewhere the picket lines not far away

As you left me all alone the other day

I was blind I could not see, that you meant the world to me

And like a fool I stood and watched you go

Now I’m crying my heart out over you

As you pick tomatoes for somebody new

Ever since you went away, I die a little more each day

Yes I’m cryin’ my heart out over you

Well each day I walk out to my lonely fields

And I swear I hear your voice around me still

I miss the sweat of your children’s back, with no money in my bank

While I’m cryin’ my heart out over you

Yes I’m cryin’ my heart out over you

As you pick tomatoes for somebody new

Ever since you went away, my profits drop some more each day

While I’m cryin’ my heart out over you

Yes, I’m cryin’ my heart out over you

We were singing songs like that the whole way to Camden,NJ. But we decided that all of our English-speaking friendsare coming to our rallies every night, so we need to makeup a song for our English-speaking friends about thecause. We thought, “Who among the Anglos needs tolearn the most about our cause?” We figured it had to bethe rednecks. So we turned on the country and westernstations, and we picked a love song because the farmersare always talking about how much they love their work-ers. There happened to be this real popular hillbilly songon the radio those days by this singer named Ricky Skaggs.So we took his song and sort of changed the words aroundto be about a group of farmworkers who left their farmerto go on strike. So this is the farmer in misery, commiser-ating with the public about his plight about his workerswho have left him to go on strike.

Baldemar Velasquez sings farmworker labor songs at the 21st NationalPesticide Forum.


out of debt. This is similar to what hap-pened to the cases that were exposed insouth Florida. Only in that situation theymade an issue of two or three cases,when the same case could be made forthousands and thousands of immigrantworkers throughout the deep south.

The challenge oforganizing thosewithout rightsThese are the kind of workers that is ourchallenge to organize in North Carolina.You’re talking about organizing a groupof workers that have no rights, are invis-ible, and they fear exposure. So this is aneven more difficult task than organizingtraditional workers on the job site. Themobility and fluidity of the workforce

makes the effort very difficult. But nothing is impossible. Ifyou work hard enough, and if you do the right thing longenough, good things are going to happen.

People go into these issues thinking, ‘well here is our time-table for this, here is our budget for this.’ You can’t run move-ments like corporations. It’s not about winning or losing. That’snot what it is about. It’s about doing the right thing. And youdo the right thing as long as you are alive.

I ask people, “Who are you?” I mean one of the big prob-lems in our society is the issue of identity– who we are indi-vidually, as a people and as a community. We keep redefin-ing ourselves because things change. Certainly in this age

of globalization we need to ask our-selves who we are and who is our com-munity. We have to redefine our com-munity. A community of farmworkersis no longer just a group that came fromfar Texas to work in Michigan or Ohioor around a particular farm. Now we’rebeing inundated with all of these work-ers from all of these Indian villages inMexico. This expanded group of peopleis our new community, because we allwork for the same rich people, the sameemployers in many cases.

The same companies that harvest to-matoes in Florida harvest tomatoes inMexico. You go to Mexico’s Sinaloa Val-ley and a lot of those packing shedsfilled with onions, cucumbers and to-matoes that they bring to the U.S. haveAmerican owners. Instead of growing

tomatoes in the U.S., owners have operations in Mexico.The same goes for a lot of other products.

In the case of North Carolina, they don’t have to importthe pickles from Mexico. They bring the workers and exploit

they don’t leave the area, they just move over to another job.Now you are beginning to see them in housekeeping, in thehotel industry, restaurants, all over the place. In the previous12-16 months, a worker that is currently in agriculture, mayhave worked in construction and poultry.

The plight of farmworkersAgriculture is a good hiding place. It is in remote and ruralareas, and they are not as exposed as they are in urban areasworking construction or something like that. To get here, mostof them pay a smuggler or a recruiterfrom the H2A program. H2A employeesdo not follow the law the way the pro-gram is supposed to run. The recruiter issupposed to pay the workers’ visa ex-penses, travel expenses, food expensesand so on. They don’t do any of that. Theymake the worker cough that money up,and sometimes an additional fee ($600-3000 per worker, similar to the smuggler’sfee) for the “privilege” of being recruitedto come work under that program.

Now, you’re almost better off comingas an undocumented worker, because ifyou come under the H2A program, therecruiters know where you are, whereyou live, where your family lives. If youowe them money, then you’re subject toretaliation. You become an indenturedservant to these recruiters. The recruit-ers and the smugglers shepherd them along the way and theyget them in the worksite, and supervise them to make surethey are working and their money is getting paid back. So itbecomes the old company store routine where you never get

The real economic enemy

is not the farmer, but it’s

the corporation that

designed the whole

economic system to take

advantage of [farmworkers

and farmers].

FLOC members and supporters rally in Mt. Olive, North Carolina, May 2003.


him that there are good reasons why undocumented workersshould be legalized with a legalization program set in placein our country so that people that live in our communitieshave rights.

The first argument that we give Mr. Ridge and PresidentBush for legalization of all these undocumented workers, sothat they can then stand up for themselves and have someability to redress their grievances, is for homeland securityitself. If you want to govern a people, make them do somethings and not do some things, first of all you need to knowwho they are, where they work, where they’re coming andwhere they’re going. When you have eight or nine millionpeople in this country that are undocumented and you don’tknow these things, how are you going to govern them? Plus,you’re supporting a whole black market economic system thatmaintains the whole undocumented worker population withspecialists in making phony IDs and ways to smuggle people.You’re helping the real criminals do what they do best. But ifyou legalize the workers, you put them out of business. So,we tell Mr. Ridge and President Bush that in the name of home-land security they ought to legalize all of these Mexicans, Gua-temalans, and everybody else who is in our country. Plus, ifour great moral President wants to get argumentative aboutit, let’s go and be moral about it.

Walking, talking freedomI’m also a preacher. The scriptures, from the Old Testamentto the New Testament, talk about God watching over threegroups of people – the orphans, the widows and the aliens. Inthe book of Exodus, the book of Leviticus, the book of Num-bers and the prophets – we won’t even go to the New Testa-ment, Jesus sort of blows everybody out of the water – sayswe need to treat the aliens in our midst like one of our nativeborn. In the book of Exodus the warning is even more severe.It says don’t do any wrong to these people or I will run youthrough with my sword and make widows and orphans ofyour children.

So I tell my Christian friends, if you are a follower ofJesus, you do what Jesus said. You do it all of the time, notjust some of the time. And when you get tired, are you notgoing to believe in freedom anymore? If Mt. Olive is toobig of a corporation and they fight too hard, are you goingto give up? Are you not going to believe in liberty and jus-tice for all? If you’re an American and you say these arethe ideals that we hold dear in our society, then you needto be walking, talking freedom, liberty and justice for all,all of the time.

Joining with farmers againstcorporationsLet me address one issue to all of my friends in the familyfarm movement, the guys that Willie Nelson sings for all thetime. From North Carolina to Ohio to Michigan to Indiana,it’s those small family farmers that oppress the farmworker.

l Ask People, Who Are You?

Define who you are. Are you a freedom-loving person? Do

you believe in ideals? I don’t care whether it’s for reasonsof ideology or reasons of religion that you support a par-ticular cause. When you define yourself, you say this iswho I am. This is what I represent. This is what I believe.This is what I profess. Well then, you have to be that per-son. You have to be that word made flesh in the world. You

need to walk it and talk it. If you believe in freedom, thenyou’re walking, talking freedom. If you say you believe inliberty, then you’re walking, talking liberty, all of the time.You’re not walking, talking liberty as long as you’re win-ning or as long as you’re losing. You’re walking, talkingliberty no matter what is happening in the world. That is

the light that you shine upon the darkness wherever youwork, wherever you travel, and whoever you meet with.That’s who you are.

When I see you, I don’t see Allen Spalt.4 I see libertyand freedom and justice sitting there in front of me. Andhe better talk it all the time, because I’m going to remind

him. You see, it’s not about winning or losing. It’s aboutdoing the right thing all of the time. If you do the rightthing long enough, then good things will happen – likecontracts, agreements, breakthroughs. Those are the fruitsof your labor. Those are the consequences of your ac-tions. You don’t need to give up hope. You don’t need togive up anything.

them here. Everybody and their mother knows that theseworkers are undocumented. You can’t take Miztecos walkingthe streets of Clinton, NC and mistake who they are. Peoplelook the other way. All the sheriffs departments, town cops,judges, county commissioners– everybody who is anybody–knows they are breaking the law, but they look the other waybecause it’s a convenient thing to do and it accommodatestheir economic system.

Mr. Tom Ridge, Secretary of Homeland Security, is clampingdown on all immigrants. They came out with a ruling a few daysago that immigrants can be held without bond indefinitely. Sureit’s focused on Middle Eastern people, but anyone who is doinganything, including speak up for their rights, is subject to thattreatment because it’s allowable under the law now. So we haveadditional obstacles to overcome to organize these people forone simple thing: the ability to redress their grievances. Now,isn’t that an American principle? Isn’t that what we say we’resupposed to be fighting for over in Iraq? Freedom?

So we have to convince Mr. Ridge, and I don’t know howwe’re going to do this, but we have to think of a way to winhim over to our side. If not by pressure, then by convincing


These are the guys whose farms I came to work on as a littlekid. They would steal from us, and they would rob us. Theywere diversified, not only tomatoes and cucumbers, but alsosugar beets, corn, wheat and soybeans. I would help many ofthem bail hay and feed their cows, pigs and horses. These arethe small family farmers. But the small family farmer in ourneck of the woods has been set into asystem where corporations exploitfarmers, who in turn exploitfarmworkers. Everybody exploits ev-erybody else. We found this a very dif-ficult issue to deal with when we firststarted organizing, because the angerthat we had was sometimes a hatredagainst that white guy that sat on thetractor and oversaw our work day inand day out.

So we have to reconcile this situa-tion. After beating our heads against thewall on this issue, we would go to the farmer and say we needto improve working conditions and clean up the fields. Theywould say, well there’s only so much we can do. Campbell’sSoup Company or H.J. Heinz Company only gives a certainprice for tomatoes, $35 per ton. $12-14 goes to the worker.Once you pay for the depreciation of the machinery, fertil-izer, gasoline and all the other expenses to put that crop inthe field, you’re talking about a return that’s marginal fromthat price of tomatoes. The farmers told us if we could getmore from the companies, then they could do better. Whenwe go to the company, their famous argument, the one we gotfrom Campbell’s Soup, Mt. Olive Pickle Company and all thesehuge corporations, is, “We’re not the employer. Go argue withthe employer.”

Then it dawned on me. It reminded me of when my momthrew bones to the dogs and they fought over the bones.This is what they wanted us to do with the farmer. They

wanted to throw some bones and let thefarmer and the farmworker fight eachother for that piece of the bone. So I saidto myself, this is not going to work. Weneed to convince the workers that thereal economic enemy is not the farmer,but it’s the corporation that designed thewhole economic system to take advan-tage of both of us.

We started what many people thoughtwas a crazy campaign that we were nevergoing to win. I sat in the main offices ofthe AFL-CIO in Washington in 1984 withthe number two leader of the AFL-CIOand told him what we were trying to do.I said we are going to demand thatCampbell’s Soup, all of their growers, sup-pliers and the farmworkers sit at one tableand negotiate one agreement. The guysaid it would never happen. Campbell’swill never negotiate with a group of work-

ers that are not their employees. And they’re telling us thesame thing about the Mt. Olive Pickle Company. Mt. Olive issaying, we’re not the employer, why are they picking on us?We’re not breaking any laws.

Well they can argue all they want and hide behind the factthat they’re not the employer, but they are the designers of

this procurement system. I mean,you’re not going to make pickles withtomatoes, tobacco or sweet potatoes.You’ve got to get cucumbers. So theycreate a system to procure these cu-cumbers. Like Campbell’s Soup, likeHeinz, like Vlassic Pickle, like all thesehuge corporations, they source theirproduce all over the world, not just inthe U.S. Mt. Olive, for instance, buystheir cucumbers in Mexico, Honduras,India, Sri Lanka and Spain. It’s a glo-bal procurement system.

How are a group of farmworkers who have no power, nopolitical leverage, no money, nothing supposed to respond tothis? Well, is it too much to say that we can be walking, talk-ing freedom, liberty and justice also? That is not just for somewhite folks to have dominion over us? No, that is for us too.

The gospel through the windowsof a migrant labor shackI was going to tell the speaker last night, don’t give up on theright-wing evangelicals, there is a lot of basis for them to beon our side. We can win them over to our side. You just haveto speak to them in the language that they understand. Thereare a lot of reasons why they should be on our side. Certainly,God’s word says they should be on our side. I figured this outwhen I decided that Campbell’s Soup is not a monolithic in-stitution that cannot be convinced to do something that they

lf you do the right thing

long enough, then good things

will happen – like contracts,

agreements, breakthroughs.

Supporters of the Mt. Olive boycott march in Mt. Olive, North Carolina, May 2003.


otherwise would not want to do.You just have to find out where theirweakness is to tell everybody to getthem to do what you want them todo. It’s the same thing with the rightwing, even the political right wingin this country. There are all kindsof reasons in the world why theyought to be on our side. So don’tgive up on them.

Some of our biggest supportersin Toledo, OH are high school stu-dents who are children of whatmost people would consider rightwing evangelicals. I send my kidsto this Christian school, because Ibelieve that these rich, white kidsfrom the suburbs ought to havecontact with Mexicans and Blacksand other people. So I send mychildren to the school. Then, Iwondered. This God that I hear thetelevangelists talking about, whodoes this God belong to? Hedoesn’t just belong to them. Godbelongs to me too. God’s got theright to speak through me. If he canspeak through a donkey anda jackass in the Bible, thenhe can speak through me.So, I decided, I’m going totell the world what the Gos-pel looks like through thewindows of a migrant laborshack. And I did.

They made the decision atthis school to invite me tospeak at one of their first at-tempts at a diversity assemblyfor the entire high school andjunior high. What a great op-portunity. So I told these kidswhat the scripture says aboutthe orphans, the widows andthe aliens. I told them the story of Remundo Hernandez.

Remundo Hernandez was one of these H2A workers thatcame to work in NC. The heat and the pesticides that hadrecently been sprayed in a tobacco field overcame him. Ac-cording to a co-worker, he became nauseous and disorientedand was vomiting blood. The farmer came to the fields afterthe workers stopped working. The workers had to load upRemundo into the farmer’s truck because he couldn’t evenfind the door handle to the pickup. They loaded him in thetruck and the farmer drove off with him and after that theyhad no word from him. He disappeared.

According to one account of this from an interview withthe farmer, sometime later the farmer came out of the front

door of his house to see what hisdog was barking about. The dog wasbarking about a human skull undera pecan tree in his front yard. Thecops came, gathered the remainsand took them to the morgue.

The co-workers of Remundokept looking for him, and cameacross a Catholic seminarian inClinton who had been working withthe workers and remembered theremains. He took them to themorgue to examine the clothing andsandals and they recognized themas Remundo’s clothing and sandals.There was not enough flesh on thebones to do an autopsy, no vital or-gans because the field animals hadeaten away most of it. That incidenthappened in 1995. I started tellingthe story in 1999. I found out whothe widow was and where she lived.She lived in this little Indian villagein San Luis Potosi, Mexico. I foundout she was destitute. He left fourchildren, the oldest of which was 16at the time.

So I said to these highschool kids, would you helpme do something forRemundo, his widow andthese children? If you dosomething for these people,you’re doing something forthe three groups of peoplethat God watches over jeal-ously. How many of you arewilling to do that? Every-body in that auditoriumraised their hands. So I’mgoing to ask you to do threethings, I told them.

One, you’re privileged toeat three meals today. Now

your parents and churches teach you about fasting and pray-ing. I want you to fast and pray for this family for your lunchhour period. And the money you would have spent for yourlunch, give to the administrator of the school for a fund forthis widow. How many of you are willing to do that? Every-body raised their hand. They raised $1,000 in one lunchhour period.

The second thing I’m going to ask you to do is go to yourparents and your churches, and get air transportation, groundtransportation, hotel and food money and come with me todeliver this money to the widow. Eight students answeredthe call. You have to remember these kids are from prettyconservative families, but when they saw the poverty that

God’s got the right to speak through me.

lf he can speak through a donkey and a

jackass in the Bible, then he can speak

through me. So, l decided, l’m going to tell

the world what the Gospel looks like through

the windows of a migrant labor shack.


made Remundo take these tremendous risks, they were ap-palled. These kids from the suburbs of Toledo, OH, whohad everything handed to them since the day they were born,go to this Indian village to see this hut made of sticks, witha thatch roof, dirt floor and a rock grill for a stove. The fam-ily made tortillas and fed us some frijoles and tortillas forlunch that day. It grabbed these kids’ hearts and they cameback and told the story.

I asked these kids to do a third thing. I said, “Help me avoidthese tragedies by helping me boycott the Mt. Olive Pickle Com-pany, one of the systemic creators of this situation in NorthCarolina. If we boycott that product and convince them to ne-gotiate an agreement so that these deaths are not happening,then you are doing the right thing and doing the right thing forthese orphans, these widows and these aliens. How many ofyou are willing to stand up with me in front of a Kroger’s storeon a Thursday, a school day, after getting permission from yourparents, to tell people not to buy Mt. Olive pickles?” Over 200kids came out of that school to join me in that demonstrationto initiate the Mt. Olive boycott.

The leaders of the labor movement couldn’t believe it. Theysaid, “How did you get the children of these right-wingevangelicals to do a labor demonstration?” I told them thetruth and the truth set them free. They are walking, talkingfreedom. They are walking, talking justice. They are walk-ing, talking liberty. To this day, those kids are some of ourbiggest supporters. We just had a demonstration in Toledo,March 26, 2003.We had almost 600 people and more thanhalf of them high school students from the Christian, Catholicand public schools.

Again, just the summer before last, we had the case ofRebano Ramirez. Rebano was a worker who was smuggled tocome work in the fields of North Carolina. Rebano was over-come by heatstroke. He had all the symptoms, nausea, disori-entation and nosebleeds. Farmworkers are regularly deniedmedical help almost anytime they complain about anything.They just get accused of having a hangover and are told to situnder a tree. That’s what they told Rebano, to sit under a tree

– that was his medical help.When the boss loaded up that evening

to go back to the labor camp, he wasn’tunder that tree, so the boss left withouthim. His co-workers kept walking backto the field looking for him. This is whatthey found two weeks later. [He showsthe police photographs of a decompos-ing body.] This is Rebano Ramirez. Ittook our lawyers six months to get thesephotos from the cops.

Rebano left a widow and five children,the oldest of which was nine years old. Iwent to see her too. The school kidsraised money for that widow also. Wehad the Department of Labor do an in-vestigation. It turns out that they weren’teven giving these workers water on thathot, humid day. They were selling them

beer. The penalty, the punishment? $1,800 for violating thefederal field sanitation standards. That’s it.

We wrote a letter to the editor of the Charlotte Observer toexpose this tragedy. The editor tells our guy in Toledo thathe’s not going to print the letter. They ask him why, and he

Farmworkers are regularly denied

medical help almost anytime they

complain about anything. They just get

accused of having a hangover and

are told to sit under a tree.

The family of deceased farmworker Rebano Ramirez, including his widow and five children.

says because the farmer is named and it might ruin the man’sreputation. We’re dealing with a seared conscience in that partof the U.S. toward a group of workers who they feel eitheraren’t human or pretend don’t exist, that they can do any-thing they want to.

Liberty, freedom & justice for allSo you can talk all you want to about liberty, freedom andjustice. But until we make it real for the people right underour own feet, right in our own backyards, how are we goingto demonstrate for the world that we are serious about lib-erty, freedom and justice for all? So you see, it’s a burden uponall of the people of this country who have even an inkling ofthese principles to extend this to all of those who are in ourcommunities, to give them respect, to give them recognitionas human beings, as workers, as good living people who wantto feed and cloth themselves and their families. We’re notasking for much, just for the right to live.


Endnotes1 In 1999, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) called a boycott against the Mt. Olive Pickle Company after it refused to negotiate contracts

with thousands of workers who chose to be represented by FLOC. The Mt. Olive Pickle Co., headed by CEO Bill Bryan, has taken a strongly anti-unionstance and refuses to recognize the voice of the farmworkers. FLOC points out it is farmworkers whose labor not only feeds people, but helps the Mt.Olive Pickle Company reap millions in profits, which come at the expense of workers who are denied the right to organize, live in overcrowded and run-down housing, and often not even provided water in the fields.

2 Each year, the U.S.’ H2A guest worker program allows qualifying U.S. farmers and agricultural companies to recruit and hire foreign citizens to work ontheir farms as seasonal laborers. H2A is a provision of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which amends the Immigration and Nationality Act.H2A workers can only work for the employer that hired then under the H2A guest worker program. If H2A workers are subjected to unacceptableworking conditions, they can’t quit and then go to work for someone else. They can’t form a union. They can be fired for any reason whatsoever. Theycan’t vote. They can either put up with anything their boss demands of them, or be deported.

3 One case involved citrus farmer Michael Allen Lee, who recruited homeless people to work in his fields with promises of good wages. However, insteadof the usual $35 to $50 a day, Lee’s workers were rarely paid more than $10 a day, despite working from dawn to dusk. Mr. Lee was convicted afterprosecution officials made use of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which ended slavery. In 1999, a total of ten people were convicted forusing slavery in two separate cases.

4 Allen Spalt is a Beyond Pesticides board member from Carrboro, NC that happened to be sitting in the front row during Mr. Velasquez’s talk.

We tell people that we’re boycotting the Mt. Olive PickleCompany, and people say it’s not going to happen. Mt. Ol-ive hides behind this structure of procurement. They’re notthe employer of farmworkers, they’re not violating any laws,and they have received re-wards for how they treat theirfactory workers. That’s fine. It’snot the issue. The issue is thisgroup of farmworkers thatAmerica is ignoring.

Not we’ve gone around andaround about farmworkers formany years. And somewhere,sometime, America has got towake up and say we cannot al-low this to happen in our owncountry. You’re talking a millionand a half farmworkers in thiscountry, who have not achievedthat liberty, justice and freedom.I know, I am convinced, that ev-erybody – whether you’re right-wing or left-wing – should beon the right side of this issue.And if we can keep after themlong enough, we can convincethem to be on our side.

So I leave you with this chal-lenge. Define yourself. If youfeel that you believe in freedom,liberty and justice for all, what-ever your philosophy, whetheryou are left or right, you’ve gotto believe in these principles.Then be those principles. That’smy message to you today. And that’s why you’re struggle isnot going to stop after you win this particular fight with thispesticide company or with this rulemaking. It doesn’t stopthere, because the world certainly is going to continue togobble everybody up, like they’re doing in these trade agree-ments all over the world.

People are preoccupied with making more money for them-selves. The accumulation of wealth without a conscience mustbe stopped. It is contrary to those philosophies of equality, free-dom, liberty and justice for everybody. I don’t care how much

money you make. I’m not goingto tell you that you can’t be a mil-lionaire. But I’m telling you, ifyou make one penny off of theRemundo Hernandez’s andRebano Ramirez’s of the world,then I’m going to be in your face.Because I believe in freedom. Ibelieve in liberty. And I believein justice. And that’s why youhave to be in the face of every-body that does those things, andhold their feet to the fire, andhold them accountable for thosetragedies and those atrocitiesthat they impose upon otherpeople. Because that’s who I amas an American.

The day that I was proud tobe an American was the day Iwent to Remundo Hernandez’swidow and Rebano Ramirez’swidow and said I am here to ex-tend liberty and freedom andjustice to you and your family.I’m going to make sure that jus-tice is done for your family inthe U.S., because I am anAmerican and I believe that foreverybody, not just somebody.

Baldemar Velasquez, President of the Farm Labor OrganizingCommittee (FLOC), can be reached at 1221 Broadway, Toledo,OH 43609, 419-243-3456, [email protected], www.floc.com. To pur-chase a copy of Canciones Por La Causa (Songs for the Cause),a CD of farmworker labor songs by Baldemar Velasquez and theAguila Negra Band, send $12 to Beyond Pesticides.

The accumulation of wealth without

a conscience must be stopped. lt is

contrary to those philosophies of

equality, freedom, liberty and

justice for everybody.

FLOC staff and members pose for a photo after a day of advocacy work inWashington, DC.


The Mt.Olive Pickle Company Boycott is being orga-nized by FLOC, 1221 Broadway, Toledo, OH 43609,

419-243-3456. For more information on the boycott, seewww.floc.com.

The Mt. Olive Pickle Company is a premier packerand a powerful, persuasive force in pickle processing. Itsfamiliar jars of pickles, relishes, and peppers look andtaste good – but the label only tells you what’s inside thejar. It says nothing about the workers who harvest thepickles. It’s time you heard about the sweatshop condi-tions on the eastern North Carolina farms that grow Mt.Olive pickles.

As a harvester of the cucumbers that become Mt. Ol-ive Pickles, you get roughly 65 cents per 33 pound bucket(averaging 6 buckets an hour). Your crew chief often paysin cash without a pay-stub, making it easy to cheat you.You sleep in housing packed with many more workersthan humanely fit. Your workplace seldom has a toiletclose or clean enough to use or soap to wash your hands.If you’re injured or sick, you rarely find a first aid kit orsomeone to take you to the doctor. Your crew often sharesthe same filthy water jug without any cups, if water isprovided at all.

Though the company makes millions each year fromselling its pickles, Mt. Olive refuses to give the work-ers who harvest its pickles a voice in contract negotia-tions. Only an agreement between the company, thefarmers, and farmworkers will create a process bywhich problems can be resolved openly and workerscan get their fair share without overburdening alreadystruggling farmers.

What you can doA Get organized. Form a support committee in your area

or work with one that already exists.

B Get your church, union, community group, Girl Scouttroop, Elks Lodge, political party, bowling league, orbridge club to endorse the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. boy-cott by signing a resolution form (available by callingFLOC’s NC office at 919-489-4485).

C Publicize those endorsements.

D Send FLOC scouting reports of where you see Mt.Olive Co. pickles sold-what states and in what stores.

E Picket lines at food stores that carry Mt. Olive Co. prod-ucts. These include national chains like Kroger Co.stores. In the south, the “house brand” pickles for FoodLion and Harris-Teeter stores are packed by Mt. OlivePickle Co.

F Write letters to the editor.

G Publicize your activities through the press, church andunion newsletters, etc.

H Hand out literature at community events.

I Speak to any organization that will listen; get them toendorse boycott.

J Send a letter to Bill Bryan, Mt. Olive Co. CEO-today.His address is: POB 609 Mt. Olive, NC 28365. Or emailhim at [email protected]. Or give him a callat 800-672-5041.

Mt. Olive Pickle Company Boycott

FLOC demonstration urges consumers to boycott Mt. Olive Pickle Company outside of a North Carolina grocery store.


Pesticides invade practically every aspect of our lives,from chemical-dependent farms to the wooden decksin our backyards. Pesticides are applied to the foods

we eat, the schools our children attend, our offices, our pub-lic parks, and in our own homes and lawns. Many of us wit-nessed the spraying of toxic insecticides into our own com-munities this summer, pluming off the back of mosquito con-trol trucks. Other trucks amble down our streets sprayingherbicides targeting weeds. Such widespread chemical useexposes a broad array of people to an equallybroad array of toxics. The result is thathomeowners, teachers, children, land-scapers, farmers, farm workers – al-most anybody – are liable to sufferthe health effects from exposure toa dangerous mix of chemicals.

The toxic bodyburdenAs more chemicals are introducedinto our lives, we carry theburden in our bodies, makingus more susceptible to new ex-posures. This “body burden”was recently reported by theCenters for Disease Controland Prevention (CDC) when itreleased the Second NationalReport on Human Exposure toEnvironmental Chemicals 1,

(which detected a total of 89chemicals in the volunteerstested, including selected orga-nophosphate pesticides, herbicides, pest repellents and dis-infectants. The Environmental Working Group (EWG), inpartnership with Mt. Sinai School of Community Medicineand Commonweal, released a similar study, Body Burden:The Pollution In People2, in which subjects contained an av-erage of 91 compounds, most of which did not exist 75 yearsago. Unfortunately, testing for health effects of these chemi-cal mixtures to which we are continually exposed is practi-cally non-existent.

Pesticide poisoningIn today’s society, there are people who cope with exposure toa massive single dose of a pesticide and the resulting health

effects, as well as those who deal with the more mysterioussynergistic effects of low-level exposure to many chemicals overa long period of time. In both cases, many victims experiencethe health effects of toxic exposures without knowing the sourceof their suffering. They assume the chemicals present in theirlives are safe – after all, how could the government allow to bemarketed a product that is not safe? However, the U.S. Envi-ronmental Protection Agency (EPA) registration of a pesticidedoes not guarantee its safety. In fact, according to the 1986

U.S. General Accounting Office report, Nonag-ricultural Pesticides: Risks and Regulations,

“EPA believes that no pesticide can beconsidered ‘safe.’” They are registered

with a risk assessment review thatdefines acceptable degrees of riskwith high uncertainty factors. Formany chemicals, there is a seriouslack of toxicity data. Furthermore,most pesticide products contain so-called “inert” ingredients that havenot been adequately tested to address

the public’s health concerns. Despitethese alarming factors, toxicpesticides continue to be usedevery day. To make mattersworse, as more people suffer,most health care providers re-ceive just minimal training inenvironmental illness and can-not provide adequate care topesticide exposure victims.

There are various symp-toms a person may exhibit asa result of a pesticide poison-ing. A common consequence

of poisoning is multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS), in whicha person’s body is no longer able to handle the onslaught ofchemicals that exist in daily life because of impairment totheir nervous and immune system. A person with MCS hasto make drastic life changes to steer clear of the ubiquitouschemical nature of our society, avoiding what is common-place for most of us. In addition to sensitivity, pesticidescan trigger a number of other symptoms, including nausea,dizziness, headaches, diarrhea, aching joints, disorientationand inability to concentrate. Chronic pesticide exposure canaffect fertility, development, and the onset of breast and pros-tate cancer, thyroid disorders, endocrine system disruption,learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, neurologicalinjury, and kidney and liver damage.

Voices for Pesticide ReformThe stories of those who have been harmed by pesticides

By Meghan Taylor

Many victims experience

the health effects of toxic

exposures without knowing the

source of their suffering.


Pesticide incident monitoringConsidering the serious health risks that pesticides pose, it islogical that a monitoring system should be put in place totrack their effects. This would be a valuable tool not only toidentify needed changes in pesticide policy, but also to edu-cate the public on the adverse effects of pesticides. However,ever since it shut down the Pesticide Incident MonitoringSystem in 1981, the federal government has no such systemto record incidents of exposure. Presently, EPA relies on in-dustry reporting of adverse effects from pesticides, a systemthat has been criticized as inadequate.

In response to this lack of adequate monitoring, BeyondPesticides embarked on a campaign to collect and documentpesticide poisoning cases. Over the years, countless stories havebeen recorded from pesticide victims throughout the country.These courageous voices, speaking out against the pervasiveuse of toxic chemicals in our country, are a strong foundationin Beyond Pesticides’ campaign for pesticide reform. In 1996,Beyond Pesticides released the stories of a multitude of thesevictims in the report Voices for Pesticide Reform: The Case forSafe Practices and Sound Policy, which reviewed pesticide poi-sonings collected from the 1970s to the 1990s in order to ex-plain the human health and environmental effects of daily andcommon pesticide use. Since then, a whole host of pesticidepoisoning victims have stepped forward and shared their storywith Beyond Pesticides. Currently, Beyond Pesticides is creat-ing a follow-up to Voices for Pesticide Reform, so as to exposethe public health threat that continues to pervade Americanlife. Cases of pesticide exposures in various realms – agricul-ture, school, home and garden, community and pressure-treatedwood – will all be recounted. Following are just some of thesedocumented reports that will be released.

Termite treatment sickensfamily and homeLoretta Hanes’ life was changed forever after, she reports,Orkin treated her Washington, DC home for termites in1998. To this day, she is unable to re-enter the home thatshe still owns, due to the high level of contamination there.Orkin treated her home with permethrin, which, like allother synthetic pyrethroids, is a central nervous system poi-son. Research on the chemical has shown adverse effects onthe immune system, enlarged livers, decreased female fertil-ity and endocrine disruption. Elevated levels of this poisonin a home are simply unacceptable, yet that was the state ofLoretta’s home after the Orkin treatment she describes, andit is still in this contaminated state five years later.

Following the treatment, the Hanes family suffered numer-ous health problems, including neurological conditions andcardiovascular disease. They hired an occupational hygienistand environmental toxicologist to test their house for con-tamination, in order to document what in the house was mak-ing the family sick. The toxicologist’s report, written January4, 2001, stated, “The level of contamination indicates thatthe house is not currently acceptable for human habitation.”

Loretta’s own doctor advised her and the rest of the Hanesfamily to “avoid living or staying for prolonged periods in thehome until such time as it is remediated.”

She relocated to an apartment, a move that she thoughtwould be a temporary until her home could be saved. Unfor-tunately, the home never was saved and is still uninhabitable.The family can simply not afford the extravagance of clean-ing the home that Orkin sickened with pesticides. Orkin willnot take responsibility for contaminating the home by payingfor its remediation, despite proof of unacceptably high levelsof the pesticide they applied to it years earlier. In an effort toplace corporate accountability where the family feels it be-longs – with Orkin – the Hanes’ issued a complaint to theDistrict of Columbia Department of Health’s Pesticide Enforce-ment & Certification Branch (PECB), alleging that Orkinmade an ineffective termite treatment and did not properlyuse pesticides. An investigation by the PECB revealed, “Orkinviolated several sections of the District of Columbia Munici-pal Regulations... during inspections and treatments to con-trol the infestation.” These violations included:

■ “use of a pesticide inconsistent with label directions”

■ “making false or fraudulent records and reports”

■ “making false or misleading statements during or after aninspection”

■ “applying pesticides in a manner that may cause harm”

■ “faulty, careless or negligent use of a pesticide

■ “application of a pesticide by an unlicensed or unregis-tered person”

In a meeting with Orkin regional and branch managersand the PECB, a settlement was reached in which Orkin wouldpay a $2,000 fine to the District of Columbia. Originally, thefine was set at $3,050. However, $1,000 was chopped off whenit was agreed to dismiss charges of “faulty, careless or negli-gent use of a pesticide” and “application of a pesticide by anunlicensed or unregistered person.” The fine was reduced anadditional $50 just because Orkin cooperated with the settle-ment agreement.

Although Orkin did have to pay $2,000 to the governmentas a result of its misuse of pesticides, the Hanes family is stillin limbo. The government fine has not allowed them toremediate their home. Selling the home is not a viable optionsince the contamination decreases its value considerably, be-sides the fact that it is a potential health threat to anyone whowould choose to live there. The Hanes’ health and financeshave both been compromised as a result of Orkin’s actions.The family is currently seeking legal action against Orkin.

Government employee putin harm’s wayAn illegal mixture of pesticides poisoned South CarolinianLou Ann Pack on August 18, 2002.


Endnotes1 Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003. “Second National Report on Human Exposure to Envi-

ronmental Chemicals,” Atlanta, GA. January 2003.2 Environmental Working Group, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, and Commonweal. “Body Burden: The Pollution In People,” 2003.

Lou Ann worked for the South Carolina Department ofTransportation (DoT). She enjoyed the physical labor of work-ing for the DoT. Being too energetic for simply flagging, shewas transferred to raking of the asphalt. She was eventuallytransferred again to herbicide spraying of wildflowers on theinterstate, in June 2000 – a transfer that increased her jobrisk quite a bit. Here, she would be working with dangerousmixtures of toxic herbicides each day, driving the truck thatsprayed wildflowers along the Interstate.

Such risky work, combined with what she explained asher employer’s irresponsibility and disregard for human health,left Lou Ann with an illness she is still trying to overcome.For many weeks, Lou Ann was required to drive a truckwith a broken air conditioner and spray chemicalsin unbearable heat. She was forced to crack herwindow open, which may have contributed toa build up of chemical exposure to her body.The chemicals she sprayed at that time wereonly a small fraction of what her bodywould soon have to bear.

Lou Ann reported to Beyond Pesticidesthat one fateful day her boss instructedher to mix several chemicals together ina 300-gallon tank to use on the inter-state. These included Transline(clopyralid), Glypro (glyphosate),Garlon 3A (triclopyr), Plateau(imazapic, ammonium salt), GroundZero (bromacil), and Indue F. She wasalso told to mix Vantage (containingnaphthalene) with Ground Zero andIndue F. Lou Ann mentioned that shewas told not to write down in her dailywork log that Transline was part of themixture, and to make sure she did nottell anyone that she was mixing it withthe other chemicals. According to LouAnn, her boss had told her it was an ex-periment to see if the job could be donewith one application instead of two. By try-ing to save resources in this way, her bosswas creating an unauthorized toxic mix-ture with unknown effects. However, by theday’s end Lou Ann would know firsthandwhat the dangerous chemical cocktail was capable of. Al-though the mixture congealed, and just didn’t “look right” toLou Ann, she felt pressure to go ahead with the work in orderto maintain her good standing with her employer. At the endof the day, she decided to hand spray off the back of the truck.

However, immediately after she stepped onto the back of thetruck, she smelled a strong chemical odor and began to showsymptoms of exposure. She became nauseated and dizzy, asevere headache came on, and her eyes began to tear. Shebegan feeling confused and weak, and jumped off the back ofthe truck. She entered the truck’s cab and put her face to theair conditioner for 20 minutes in an effort to dispel the symp-toms. When she returned to the shop, everyone had left forthe day. It was a Friday, so Lou Ann left work and went home.She was sick the entire weekend.

Scared of her illness, she went to work Monday andtalked to her supervisor, asking if there was a doctor she

could see. He responded with chaffing remarksthat it was all in her head, but gave her a

phone book to find a doctor. The doctor, asit turned out, was very suspicious that LouAnn’s symptoms were linked to chemicalexposure. In correspondence between atoxicologist and her regular practitioner,the toxicologist wrote that he thought herillness was indeed due to exposure to the

pesticides she was spraying. He stated,“Of her many possible toxic exposures

– even the ‘inert’ agents listed, in-cluding a glycol ether, ethanol,

diethanolamine and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), have signifi-

cant toxicity – naphthalene seems agood fit [with] her initial symptoms. Its

inhalation toxicity is usually measuredby its low vapor pressure, but when made

into an aerosol by spray nozzles, it couldreadily gain access to skin and the upper

airway in droplet form, and thus work itstoxic mischief. Alternatively, the possibleexposure to the above ‘inert’ ingredientsmight be playing a role, and the toxic ef-fects of a combination of the above agentscan only be speculated.”

Since her exposure, Lou Ann’s supervisorwas written up for the illegal mixing of chemi-

cals, and the spray truck she was using was dis-assembled.

These pesticide-poisoning victims and many others willbe featured in an upcoming report from Beyond Pesticides chroni-cling the effects of commonly used pesticides on society. If youwould like to share your story, please contact Beyond Pesticidesat (202) 543-5450 or write to Beyond Pesticides, 701 E Street,SE, Suite 200, Washington, DC 2003.


As children are back in school, so should school offi-cials prepare a safe and healthy learning environment.One way to do this is to implement a safer pest man-

agement program, such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM),that uses alternatives to the prevailing chemical-intensive prac-tices because of the health hazards such practices pose tochildren and school staff. IPM is a program of prevention,monitoring and control that offers the opportunity to elimi-nate or drastically re-duce hazardous pesti-cide use in schools.

School IPM is not anew approach to pestmanagement. It is a con-cept that has been imple-mented in various com-munities, schools andgovernment facilities fordecades. Although thereare no federal laws re-garding school pesticideuse and pest manage-ment, there is pendingfederal legislation, theSchool Environment Pro-tection Act (SEPA), whichhas been introduced inCongress and passedtwice by the U.S. Senate.There are also numerousstate laws, local policies,resolutions and resourcesthat focus on the adoption of school IPM programs.

Currently there are 17 state laws that recommend or re-quire schools to adopt an IPM program. In addition, 315school districts and five individual schools have voluntarilyadopted an IPM policy where no law mandates such pro-grams, according to the recent Beyond Pesticides report, AreSchools Making the Grade? EPA and an additional numberof states have developed materials to facilitate schools’ imple-mentation of IPM programs.1

Children’s exposure totoxic pesticides“Particular uncertainty exists regarding the long-term healtheffects of low-dose pesticide exposure,” states the AmericanMedical Association’s Council on Scientific Affairs. “Consid-

Back To School Organizing forSafer Pest Managementby Kagan Owens

A BEYOND PESTlClDES FACT SHEET • A BEYOND PESTlClDES FACT SHEET • A BEYOND PESTlClDES FACT SHEET

ering these data gaps, it is prudent... to limit pesticides expo-sures ... and to use the least toxic chemical pesticide or non-chemical alternative.”2

The vulnerability of infants and children to the harmful ef-fects of pesticides has attracted national attention. EPA and theNational Academy of Sciences, among others, have voiced con-cerns about the danger that pesticides pose to children. Chil-dren face higher risks than adults from pesticide exposure due

to their small size, ten-dency to place their handsclose to their face, engag-ing in activities on or nearthe ground, greater intakeof air and food relative tobody weight, developingorgan systems, and otherunique characteristics.

Pesticide exposurecan adversely affect achild’s neurological, res-piratory, immune andendocrine system.3 A re-cent study found organo-phosphate pesticidescause genetic damagelinked to neurologicaldisorders such as atten-tion deficit hyperactivitydisorder and Parkinson’sdisease.4 Several pesti-cides, such as pyrethrinsand pyrethroids, organo-

phosphates and carbamates, are also known to trigger or exac-erbate asthma symptoms.5 Because most of the symptoms ofpesticide exposure, from respiratory distress and flu-like symp-toms to difficulty in concentration, are common in school chil-dren and may also have other causes, pesticide-related illnessesoften go unrecognized and unreported.6

Studies show that children living in households wherepesticides are used suffer elevated rates of leukemia, braincancer and soft tissue sarcoma.7 According to EPA’s Guide-lines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment, children receive 50 per-cent of their lifetime cancer risks in the first two years of life.8

In 1999, the National School Boards Association along withthe National League of Cities and Youth Crime Watch of Americastated that “dangers in the environment,” such as “potentiallydangerous pesticides,” are one of the “10 critical threats” thatjeopardize “the health, safety, and future of America’s children.”


How-to get your school to adoptan lPM programSchool community members and activists, school policy deci-sion makers, and school pest management practitioners all playvital roles in the adoption of an effective IPM program. Use thefollowing information to advocate for a school IPM programor to improve the existing program.

Changing a school’s pest management program requiresperseverance. Since pest control is not often a large part ofthe school’s budget, many administrators do not consider it afocus and are likely to be uninformed about their school’spolicy and any available alternatives.

■ Work with your school to stop using hazardous pesticidesand adopt alternative practices that have been adoptedacross the country.

■ While the alternatives are being put in place, ask the schoolto provide staff and parents with prior notice before pesti-cides are used.

■ Beyond Pesticides and state and local organizations canprovide you with the resources necessary for developing,adopting and implementing a school IPM program.

Whether you are a parent, community activist, pest man-ager/pest control operator, or school administrator or employee,the following outlines the steps leading to the adoption of asuccessful school IPM program.

1 ldentify the school’s pest management policy. Thefirst step is to identify whether there are applicable stateand local policies concerning school pesticide use and/or

IPM and to find out who administers the pest control pro-gram – the school, the school system or a contractor. Con-tact the appropriate school personnel to find out if andhow the applicable policies are being implemented byidentifying what pest management controls the school isusing, the pesticides used, and the notification program.

2 Educate yourself and evaluate the program. Gatherinformation on the hazards of pesticide exposure and theincreased susceptibility of children to the health effects ofpesticides. Learn about IPM and what alternatives to chemi-cal pest control methods are available. Identify additionalsteps that the school should be taking to protect childrenfrom pesticides and implement a successful IPM program.

3 Organize the school community. Identify and con-tact friends and neighbors, individuals, and organizationswho care about or are affected by school pesticide use,including parents, students, teachers, school staff andboard members, unions, doctors, environmentalists, lo-cal PTAs, outdoor clubs and religious institutions. De-velop and present a proposed IPM policy (see AppendixC for a model policy) for adoption by the school or schooldistrict. PTA meetings are an excellent forum to arouseinterest and encourage parents, teachers, and studentsto develop a pilot IPM project in their school (see Ap-pendix D for the National PTA’s resolution on school pes-ticide use and IPM). Create a district-wide workshop forpest managers, discussing IPM strategies and methods.

4 Work with school decision-makers. Contact appro-priate school official(s) and ask for an endorsement andpassage of the proposed IPM policy. Provide them withinformation on the hazards of the chemicals currently be-ing used and on safer alternative strategies. It is impor-tant that an IPM program include a written policy adopted

IPM is a pest management strategy that focuses onlong-term prevention or suppression of pest prob-

lems through a combination of practices such as:

■ regular pest population monitoring;

■ site or pest inspections;

■ an evaluation of the need for pest control;

■ occupant education; and,

■ structural, mechanical, cultural, and biologicalcontrols.

Techniques include such methods as:

■ sanitation;

■ pest-proofing waste disposal;

■ structural maintenance;

■ good soil health; and,

■ other non-chemical tactics.

Least-hazardous pesticides should be selected onlyas a last resort, thus minimizing the toxicity of andexposure to any pesticide products that are used.

lntegrated Pest Management(lPM) Defined

School community members and

activists, school policy decision makers,

and school pest management

practitioners all play vital roles in the

adoption of an effective lPM program.


Endnotes1 U.S. EPA. 1993. Pest Control in the School Environment: Adopting Integrated Pest Management. 735-F-93-012. Office of Pesticide Programs. Washing-

ton DC. http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/ipm/brochure/.2 American Medical Association, Council of Scientific Affairs. 1997. “Education and Informational Strategies to Reduce Pesticide Risk.” Prevention Medicine

26:191-200.3 Reigart, J. et al. 1999. Recognition and Management of Pesticide Poisonings. 5th edition. Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. U.S. EPA.

735-R-98-003; Guillette, E., et al. 1998. “An Anthropological Approach to the Evaluation of Preschool Children Exposed to Pesticides in Mexico.”Environmental Health Perspectives 106(6): 347-353; Schettler, T., et al. 2000. “Known and suspected developmental neurotoxicants.” In Harms Way: ToxicThreats to Child Development. Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility: Cambridge, MA; Repetto, R., et al. 1996. Pesticides and Immune System:The Public Health Risk. World Resources Institute. Washington, DC; Schettler, T., et al. 2000. Generations at Risk: Reproductive Health and the Environment.MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.

4 Winrow, C. et al. 2003. “Loss of Neuropathy Target Esterase in Mice Links Organophosphate Exposure to Hyperactivity.” Nature Genetics http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ng1131.html.

5 Box, S. et al. 1996. “A Systemic Reaction Following Exposure To a Pyrethroid Insecticide.” Hum Exp Toxicol 15:389-90; Underner, . et al. 1987.“Occupational Asthma in the Rural Environment.” Rev Pneumonol Clin 43:26-35; Weiner, A. 1961. “Bronchial Asthma Due To The Organic PhosphateInsecticides.” Ann Allergy 15: 211-212; Reigart, J. et al. 1999. Recognition and Management of Pesticide Poisonings. 5th edition. U.S. EPA 735-R-98-003;Wagner, S. 2000. “Fatal Asthma In A Child After Use of An Animal Shampoo Containing Pyrethrin.” Western Journal of Medicine 173:86-87; Field, M.2002. Asthma the Breathtaking Disease. Johns Hopkins School Of Public Health. http://www.jhsph.edu/Magazine/Asthma.html; Eskenazi, B., et al. 1999.“Exposures of Children to Organophosphate Pesticides and Their Potential Adverse health Effects.” Environmental Health Perspectives 107(Supp 3):409-419; Senthilselvan, A., et al. 1992. “Association of Asthma With Use of Pesticides: Results of a cross-sectional survey of farmers.” American Review ofRespiratory Disease 146:884-887.

6 Reigart. 1999; National Environmental Education and Training Foundation. 2002. National Strategies for Health Care Providers: Pesticides InitiativeImplementation Plan. Washington DC. http://www.neetf.org/pubs/NEETFImplement.pdf.

7 Ma, X. et al. 2002. “Critical Windows of Exposure to Household Pesticides and Risks of Childhood Leukemia.” Environmental Health Perspectives 110(9):955-960; Buckley, J. et al. 2000. “Pesticide Exposure in Children with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.” Cancer 89(11): 2315-2321; Zahm, S. et al. 1998.“Pesticides and Childhood Cancer.” Environmental Health Perspectives 106(Supp. 3): 893-908Gold, E. et al. 1979. “Risk Factors for Brain Tumors inChildren.” American Journal of Epidemiology 109(3):309-319; Lowngart, R. et al. 1987. “Childhood Leukemia and Parents’ Occupational and HomeExposures.” Journal of the National Cancer Institute 79:39; Reeves, J.D. 1982. “Household Insecticide-Associated Blood Dyscrasias in Children” (letter).American Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology 4:438-439; Davis, J.R. et al. 1993. “Family Pesticide Use and Childhood Brain Cancer.” Arch. Environ-mental Contamination and Toxicology 24:87-92; Leiss, J. et al. 1995. “Home Pesticide Use and Childhood Cancer: A Case-Control Study.” AmericanJournal of Public Health 85:249-252.

8 U.S. EPA. 2003. Draft Final Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment. EPA/630/P-03/001A Washington, DC. http://epa.gov/ncea/raf/cancer2003.htm.

by the school district’s board. This will ensure the pro-gram is institutionalized and will not revert back to a con-ventional program after the key activists, parent or schoolstaff person leave the district.

4 Become a watchdog and establish an lPM com-mittee. Make sure the school district is on track to im-prove its practices. The same individuals, organizations andstaff members that were instrumental in getting the schoolto adopt the policy must also watchdog the school to makesure it is successfully implemented. Creating an IPM com-mittee to oversee the program can be one way to ensureprogram implementation. Committee members should in-clude parents, students (if age appropriate), teachers, schooladministrators, facilities, food service and landscape staff,any pest control company contracted by the school, andcommunity environmental and public health organizations.The committee’s main purpose is to assist with the devel-opment of implementation guidelines and recommend non-toxic and least hazardous strategies for pest management.

The information in this article is excerpted from Beyond Pes-ticides’ and the School Pesticide Reform Coalition’s report, SaferSchools: Achieving A Healthy Learning Environment ThroughIntegrated Pest Management, which focuses on how schools na-tionwide are implementing IPM (downloadable for free atwww.beyondpesticides.org/schools or $5ppd for a hard copythrough Beyond Pesticides).

State School lPM Laws

California Recommends

Connecticut Recommends

Florida Requires

Illinois Requires

Kentucky Requires

Louisiana Requires

Maine Requires

Maryland Requires

Massachusetts Requires

Michigan Requires

Montana Recommends

New Jersey Requires

New York Recommends

Pennsylvania Requires

Rhode Island Requires

Texas Requires

West Virginia Requires


Resource

By Angus Wright and Wendy Wolford,(Food First/Institute for Food and Devel-opment Policy, August 2003, pp 256.)

In Brazil, where there is fertile land,wealth, and a tropical climate, hunger isnot destiny. It is the product of a totallyunjust order. Those who die of hunger inBrazil are assassinated.

—Jean Zeigler, UN Special

Rapporteur on the Right to Food

In the country with the widest incomegap between rich and poor and wheremillions of children fend for themselves

on city streets, one of the world’s most suc-cessful grassroots social movements hasarisen. To Inherit the Earth: The LandlessMovement and the Struggle for a New Bra-zil, written by Angus Wright and WendyWolford, is the first book published in theUnited States to tell the dramatic story ofBrazil’s Landless Workers’ Movement, orMovimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra (MST). The MST, which includes mil-lions of desperately poor, landless, joblessmen and women, has used non-violentmeans to secure rights to over 20 millionacres of farmland. Not only are the MSTfighting for their own rights, they are trans-forming their society into a more just one,and their approach may offer the best so-lution yet to Brazil’s environmental prob-lems in the Amazon and elsewhere. To In-herit the Earth closely investigates the his-tory, the accomplishments, and the aspira-tions of the MST, Brazil’s largest and fast-est growing popular movement.

To Inherit the Earth details how the MSThas successfully occupied and farmed un-productive land, forcing the governmentto award more than 20 million acres of landto 350,000 MST families since themovement’s founding in 1984. Instead ofwaiting for the government to meet itslong-standing promises to redistributeland, members of the MST have occupiedland claimed by wealthy landowners, con-

tinuing the occupations until the govern-ment met its immediate need for land.Rather than breaking the law, the MSTstrategy of reclaiming the land is rooted inBrazil law requiring that land “serve itssocial function;” thus, forcing the govern-ment to return the land to the rural work-ers. Before and after receiving land, theMST continues to insist that the govern-ment go beyond land distribution to pur-sue a broader program of agrarian reformand social change. But all this has come ata cost. Many families who participated inland occupations not only have to facedown the police and the military, but alsogunmen hired by landlords. They havesuffered imprisonment, beatings and mur-der, with several hundred MST leaders as-sassinated during these struggles. Never-theless the MST strategy has been success-ful and is now playing a key role in rede-fining the debate over land reform.

On a personal level, To Inherit the Earthdescribes how in committing themselvesto the long and difficult struggles that par-ticipation in the MST brings to virtuallyall who join, many MST members haveundergone a profound personal transfor-mation from passive and victimized peopleto highly energized agents of change. They

have become real citizens. They have alsodemonstrated that solutions can be foundto some of the world’s most stubborn prob-

lems of poverty and wasteful useof land. The MST has shownclearly that the landless need notbe compelled to journey to theAmazon forest and other environ-mentally sensitive areas in order tocarve out farms, as the governmenthas tried to convince them to do.Many MST farmers are pioneeringmore ecologically sound means ofproduction on land long available

for agriculture. The Swedish Parliamentawarded the MST the Right LivelihoodAward (often called the alternative NobelPrize), and many observers consider theMST to be the most important social move-ment in Latin America today.

Authors Wright and Wolford put themovement in its historical, political, andenvironmental context, trace its growth,and address the issues the MST faces go-ing forward. And throughout, they sharedozens of personal stories of people in themovement – stories filled with tremen-dous courage, personal sacrifice, faith,humor, drama, and determination. AngusWright teaches Environmental Studies atCalifornia State University at Sacramento.His PhD in Brazilian History is from theUniversity of Michigan. Dr. Wright is theauthor of The Death of Ramon Gonzalez:The Modern Agricultural Dilemma (Uni-versity of Texas Press). Wendy Wolfordteaches Geography at the University ofNorth Carolina at Chapel Hill. She re-ceived her PhD in Geography from theUniversity of California at Berkeley. Dr.Wolford’s research interests include thepolitical economy of development, agrar-ian societies, and the struggle for land inBrazil. The book is published by the thinktank Food First/Institute for Food andDevelopment Policy. To Inherit the Earthis available at www.beyondpesticides.org/join/order.htm and most bookstores.

To lnherit the EarthThe landless movement and the struggle for a new Brazil

To Inherit the Earth co-author Angus Wright spoke abouthis upcoming book to participants at Beyond Pesticides’ 21stNational Pesticide Forum, April 26, 2003, in Austin, Texas.

BEYOND PESTICIDES MEMBERSHIP & SUBSCRIPTIONS❏ YES, make me a member of Beyond Pesticides (includes subscription to Pesticides & You).

❏ $25 Individual ❏ $30 Family ❏ $50 Public Interest Organizations ❏ $15 Limited Income❏ YES, I’d like to subscribe to Pesticides & You.

❏ $25 Individual ❏ $50 Public Interest Organizations ❏ $50 Government ❏ $100 Corporate❏ YES, I’d like to receive Beyond Pesticides’ monthly Technical Report. $20 with membership or subscription.

If outside the United States, please add $10.00 each for memberships and subscriptions.

R E S O U R C E S

Method of Payment: ❏ Check or money order ❏ VISA/Mastercard # ____________________________ Expiration Date: _________

Name Phone Fax Email

Title (if any) Organization (if any)

Street City State Zip

Quantity Item Description (for T-shirts, please note size S,M,L,XL) Unit Price Total

MEMBERSHIP

Mail to: Beyond Pesticides, 701 E Street SE, Washington, DC 20003 Tax-Deductible Donation: ____________

Total Enclosed: ____________Vol. 23, No. 3, 2003

T-Shirts❏ “Pollution Prevention Is the Cure.” full color graphic on 100% natural organic

cotton Patagonia™ T-shirt. Sizes S, L, XL, XXL. $10 each; 2 for $15.

❏ Beyond Pesticides’ Praying Mantis T-shirt. Printed on slate blue, 100% organiccotton with soy ink. Sizes S-XL. $15 each; 2 for $25.

Books❏ A Failure to Protect. Landmark study of federal government pesticide use and pest

management practices. $23.00. Summary and Overview $5.00.

❏ Unnecessary Risks: The Benefit Side of the Risk-Benefit Equation.Explains how the EPA’s Risk-Benefit Analyses falsely assume the need for high-risk pesticides, how “benefits” are inflated, how alternatives might be assessed,and the public’s right to ask more from its regulators. $10.00.

❏ Safety at Home: A Guide to the Hazards of Lawn andGarden Pesticides and Safer Ways to Manage Pests.Learn more about: the toxicity of common pesticides; non-toxic lawn care andwhy current laws offer inadequate protection. $11.00

❏ Voices for Pesticide Reform: The Case for Safe Practices and Sound Policy. A studydocumenting stories of tragic pesticide poisoning and contamination, andsuccessfully used alternatives that avoid toxic chemicals. $20.00 Summary:Voices for Pesticide Reform $5.00

❏ Poison Poles: Their Toxic Trail and the Safer Alternatives. A study on the largestgroup of pesticides – wood preservatives, the contamination associated withtreated wood utility poles and the available alternatives. $20.00

❏ Pole Pollution. Deals specifically with the wood preservative pentachlorophenol,and the EPA’s shocking findings about its toxicity. $7.00.

Back Issues❏ Back issues of Pesticides and You $2.00 each

❏ Back issues of Technical Reports $1.00 each

Brochures ($2.00 each; bulk discounts available)

❏ Least Toxic Control of Lawn Pests❏ Agriculture: Soil Erosion, Pesticides, Sustainability❏ Estrogenic Pesticides❏ Pesticides and Your Fruits and Vegetables❏ Pesticides – Warning: These Products May Be Hazardous to Your Health❏ Pesticides in Our Homes and Schools

Testimony❏ Lawn Care Chemicals, 3/28/90 or 5/9/91, $4.00❏ Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), 4/23/91 or 6/8/93, $4.00❏ Food Safety, 10/19/89, 8/2/93, or 6/7/95, $4.00❏ School Environmental Protection Act (SEPA) 7/18/01, $4.00❏ School IPM, 6/20/91, 3/19/97, or 3/30/99, $5.00❏ New York City’s Response to the Encephalitis Outbreak, 10/12/99 $4.00❏ Parents: Right-to-Know-Schools, 3/19/97 $3.00

Publications❏ Building Blocks for School IPM $15.00❏ Expelling Pesticides from Schools: Adopting School IPM $15.00❏ Beyond Pesticides’ West Nile Virus Organizing Manual $15.00❏ Beyond Pesticides’ChemWatch Factsheets: individual: $2.00, compilation: $20.00❏ Getting Pesticides Out of Food and Food Production $5.00❏ Least-Toxic Control of Pests $6.00❏ Community Organizing Toolkit $12.00❏ Model Pesticide Ordinance, Model School Pest Management Policy, Model State

School Pesticide Law $5.00 each❏ Building of State Indoor Pesticide Policies $4.00❏ The Right Way to Vegetation Management $4.00

Pesticides and YouBeyond Pesticides/National Coalition Against the Misuse of Pesticides701 E Street SE, Suite 200Washington, DC 20003202-543-5450

Fall 2003 • Vol. 23, No. 3 a member of Earth Share SM

COMPLlMENTARY COPY

Please Subscribe!

Printed on 100% post consumerwaste with soy inks. Cover onQuestTM, 100% non-deinked, non-rebleached post consumer waste.

Mark your calendars! BeyondPesticides is teaming up with

Pesticide Action NetworkNorth America (PANNA) andCalifornians for Pesticide Re-

form (CPR) to host Unite forChange: New Approaches toPesticides and Environmental Health, our 22nd National Pesticide Forum.

The Forum will be held April 2-4, 2004 at the University of California, Berkeley, ClarkKerr Conference Center, just minutes from downtown San Francisco. Brochures and

registration forms will be mailed this winter. For more information or to make sug-gestions, contact John Kepner, Forum Coordinator at 202-543-5450 or [email protected]. For complete details visit www.beyondpesticides.org/forum.

Save the Date!

Unite for ChangeNew Approaches to Pesticides and Environmental Health

The 22nd National Pesticide ForumUniversity of California, Berkeley

April 2–4, 2004

Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDWashington, DCPermit No. 345

fall 2003 pesticides and you...contents beyond pesticides/national coalition against the misuse of...

Documents