By Ron Whitehurst, PCA and Jan Dietrick, MPH
Do you want more pesticides in your food? Most don’t. So why is the state still registering pesticides that cause cancer and reproductive harm, disrupt sex hormones, irritate the lungs, kill charismatic wildlife, and contain unregulated PFAS chemicals?
Our Sierra Club California Agriculture Committee is working for transformation in California agriculture, and we’re excited about a future Agriculture Committee in our chapter that you can join (see below).
Its first public appearance will be at the Ventura County Fair, August 2-13 in the Agriculture building; please stop by.
We can all take actions to eliminate chemical poisons on farms and in gardens and landscapes and create healthy soils for food quality, food security and mitigating biodiversity loss, drought, floods, heat waves, and climate chaos.
Farmers and farmworkers, ranchers and restaurants, school and health professionals, and just folks who love delicious, healthy food can learn and organize under the banner of the Sierra Club to make a difference.
The Agriculture Committee (one of 13 issue committees of the CA Conservation Committee) recently set a singular goal to accelerate pesticide reduction for environmental justice, healthy communities, and biodiversity conservation. The new work plan aims to:
- Create a strategic plan for a California Beyond Pesticides Campaign
- Develop partnership agreements with Beyond Pesticides, California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) and Californians for Pesticide Reform
- Establish agreed principles related to the USDA National Organic Program and the Sustainable Pest Management Roadmap
- Find pathways aligned with Sierra Club’s Labor and Economic Justice Program and Beyond Coal and Gas Campaign in a holistic vision of care for impacted people.
- Collaborate with all sectors to build political will for poison-free farming and gardening.
- Connect Sierra Club California with funds for the campaign.
The simplest way to reduce poisons on farms is to increase organic farming, because the USDA organic label is a well-established standard for safe, non-polluting farms and products. Organic is getting millions in federal and state funds.
California began certifying a higher soil-building level called Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC), a focus of the Rodale Institute Organic Research Center in Camarillo. Toxic pesticide use by city folks is a bigger challenge. The SPM Roadmap has action the state will take, but we can help spread the word.
While stopping short of envisioning growth in organic per se, organic farmers are certainly qualified for the Roadmap’s recommended investments and incentives for market access and risk mitigation. Training for farmers and advisors is another powerful “carrot”, while tighter regulation and de-registering highly hazardous pesticides are the “stick” which we can wield faster through the potential political influence of the Sierra Club.
The new Santa Barbara–Ventura Chapter Agriculture Committee can be an exciting place to learn about farming, gardening, and landscaping issues. We envision informative meetings at a farm, packing shed, kelp or worm farm or composter.
A listserv “email chat room” is coming for information, ideas, and actions to protect farmworkers and all living things and to work on increasing food security for the region. We’re planning a drawing at the first meeting for a free copy of The Farm Bill and For the Love of Soil.
To join our local SB-V Ag Committee, send an email to Jan Dietrick.