For decades, farmworker communities across California have demanded the right to know beforehand what, when and where hazardous agricultural pesticides will be applied.
They have wanted to be able to take safety precautions against exposure to pesticides drifting from fields. For years, these communities have called for an online system that could warn of upcoming toxic pesticide applications.
On March 24, that system finally arrived, as the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) launched the new online statewide pesticide notification system called “Spray Days.”
The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE) and Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR) sponsored a celebratory news conference attended by more than 50 supporters at Shafter Veterans Hall. At the same site, the DPR hosted a launch event presentation of the online Spray Days system and sign-up to receive pesticide notifications by text or e-mail.
“This is a first-in-the-world pesticide notification system,” said CPR Co-Director Angel Garcia. “Since California uses more pesticides than any other state, including more than 130 pesticides that are not approved in the European Union, farmworker communities have demanded a ‘heads up’ in order to take measures to reduce the risk of exposure to our loved ones.
“We need far better protections from the state, but this is a giant step forward toward transparency about toxic pesticide use.”
Byanka Santoyo, an organizer with the CRPE, added that “right here in Shafter, five years ago, our community called on the ag commissioner to give us advanced notice of cancer-causing fumigant applications, but he refused. We kept pushing and pushing at AB 617 meetings, at public hearings, at news conferences and protests. Now, not just Shafter, but the whole state will have access to upcoming pesticide information.”
The Spray Days system allows for anybody with Internet access to search a map of California for notices of intended pesticide applications for the following day (for fumigants, the information will be provided 48 hours in advance).
People can also sign up to receive notices of pending pesticide use through text or e-mail. The notices will be for restricted material pesticides only—the pesticides considered most hazardous by the DPR. Some of these restricted pesticides can cause cancer and damage brains and lungs, among other health harms.
“We love the pesticide map system and the opportunity to get text notices,” said Erika Alfaro, a public health nurse in Northern California and a member of Safe Ag Safe Schools. “With this information, for the first time, agricultural communities can take the proper health precautions by closing windows and doors, taking clothes off the line and allowing the especially vulnerable—like pregnant or asthmatic individuals—to stay indoors at home, work or school.”
Irene Gomez, an Oxnard resident and member of the Coalition Advocating for Pesticide Safety–Ventura County, or CAPS 805, raised a remaining concern: “When my community in Nyeland Acres had the pilot notification project, our biggest issue was that you couldn’t find out exactly where the pesticides would be applied—which farm?
“That’s still a problem with Spray Days. You can only know pesticides are being applied within a square mile, but not whether it’s coming from behind your house, across the street or even a mile away.”
It is possible for such concerns to be addressed through the Spray Days review process, which calls for an Environmental Justice Advisory Committee and the California Department of Food & Agriculture to make annual recommendations for changes, as well as a yearly public comment period.
Good evening,
Major:
Plant Science- Nutrition Science
Minor:
American Indian Studies and MCJ Broadcast Journalism.
Before returning to Fresno State University and pursuing Plant Science and Nutrition Science as a major, I was administering medications working as an LVN for 7 years.
While I was in this field of medicine I have been a dedicated researcher intentionally detaching from all sources of mainstream media outlets in 2012 due to misguided information that these provide to the public.
I witnessed epilepsy completely cured by organic raw essential oils with only one administration, while I started to work in the holistic field of medicine. This really caught my interest because I was administering conventional medicine as an LVN with a license from the State of California for these same conditions.
Soon after I witnessed diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease to all be reversed through holistic practices and plant medicines. This was all in and around the year of 2013. Whenever these ailments were returned to a normal state the overall human condition was improved including other problems.
This really got me excited with what I had found thinking people wanted to know this and hear this information only to be ridiculed and pushed back against on what I knew. I was the only person I knew in my circle at the time that committed my time to research. After understanding that I could not really talk to any people in established positions with what I was seeing and learning in a mainstream environment, I left this field in 2015 and began working with like minded people in the field of holistic medicine.
Jenny Mccarthy healed her son of autism using similar holistic practices(holistic chelation). There are also holistic hospitals in Mexico, one by the name of CHIPSA hospital that has a very successful rate of reversing cancer in their patients using a German scientist’s founding practice since he first established his practice. (Max Gerson)
I ended up going vegan in 2015 after studying food engineering and our major corporate farming industries here in America while also reflecting on Indigenous American practices, tradition, ancient food forest and organic preventions.
While also observing the process our food has gone through since the advancement of technology
I began to compare European and Mexicos curriculum in the medical and health industry, Nutrition science and agriculture – plant science and found very different approaches to how we educate and the curriculum provided.
While Europe and Mexico use a holistic approach the United States has funded and guided not based on science but is more influenced by power, profit, and control.
The pesticide industry, the meat industry such as cargill, and the pharmaceutical industry guide the curriculum heavily even if it is inaccurate.
Animal meat does not originate sources of vitamins and nutrients, or even protein, the earth does in the form of vitamins, minerals, and microbes.
For example: one of my test questions in nutrition science was:
What is the best source to obtain vitamin B1 thiamin from:
the multiple choice options it gave the best plant sources which is actually where B1 originates (plants)
But the correct answer was pork/pig
Which is guided and heavily influenced by the meat industry and is inaccurate not by me, but inaccurate to proper science.
The pesticide industry and bayer have a heavy presence in the plant science department.
The connection and timing of celiac disease and really understanding wheat throughout human history is important on what these chemicals do to the microbiome in the environment and in our gut. If you combine conventional foods, wheat that is raised with pesticides from seeds to harvest as well as antibiotics in meat or over the counter your gut does not really stand a chance.
The immune system starts to malfunction and this becomes an autoimmune disease. This is very critical for communities, neighbors, loved ones, families, and the general public in the region we live in.
This is a huge concern of mine. I have written research papers and try to keep a paper trail as I go.
People we know and love are being affected and we are not getting the right answers, the right treatments, and accurate practices due to the curriculum and funding that is guiding curriculum.
Medicine is not medicine if it destroys us in the long term.
Fish
do not create omegas they eat plants that contain omegas
Fish eat algae (ocean plants in order for them to obtain omegas)
We are then told to eat fish for omegas when we can go straight to the source as indigenous people have always done.
I am only venting my frustrations. Thank you. Do not take my word for it. I committed my time to research and education.
Diego Rivera (he/him/his)
Project Rebound | Student Assistant
Rising Scholars | Equity and Success
plantlife@mail.fresnostate.edu
559-495-5737 Cell
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