SF GATE– Farmers planting strawberries and other crops in California will soon have to contend with cancer-causing poison instead of bugs, worms and fungus if regulators get their wish.

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation has proposed registering methyl iodide as a pesticide in California to the dismay of scientists and environmental groups, who say it is so toxic that even chemists are reluctant to handle it.

The chemical will become legal for growers to use after a 60-day comment period ending June 29 unless there is some kind of public outcry.

“This is one of the most egregious pesticides out there,” said Sarah Aird, the state field organizer for Californians for Pesticide Reform, a coalition of watchdog groups opposed to the use of potentially harmful chemicals. “It is really, really toxic. It is actually used in the laboratory to induce cancer cells.”

Methyl iodide was approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2007 for use as a fumigant over the protests of more than two dozen California legislators and 54 scientists, including five Nobel laureates, who signed a letter opposing registration of the chemical.

Read the full article HERE.

© COPYRIGHT SF GATE, 2010

Photo by flickr user Michael Oh

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LONG ISLAND PRESS– A gigantic sinkhole, larger than a city intersection, has opened in the northern part of Guatemala City, Guatemala, after the region was battered by Tropical Storm Agatha. More than 100 people lost their lives in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador due to the intense weather.

A local newspaper reports that a security guard was killed when the giant sinkhole opened up, and local residents claim a three-story building and a house fell into the hole. Neither of these reports have been confirmed.

The sinkhole was blamed on poor sewage system, but was the least of Guatemala’s worries, as mudslides wracked the country, burying victims, closing roads and collapsing bridges, forcing more than 100,000 people to be evacuated from their homes.

Agatha decreased in strength from tropical storm status to a tropical depression Saturday, losing it’s depression ranking Sunday.

© COPYRIGHT LONG ISLAND PRESS, 2010

OTHER WORLDS– “A new earthquake” is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides.

The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto’s seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation’s presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day.

In an open letter sent May 14, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, the executive director of MPP and the spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the Congress of Papay (MPNKP), called the entry of Monsanto seeds into Haiti “a very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds … and on what is left our environment in Haiti.”(1)

Haitian social movements have been vocal in their opposition to agribusiness imports of seeds and food, which undermines local production with local seed stocks. They have expressed special concern about the import of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Continue reading about Haitian Farmers Commit to Burning Monsanto Seeds. 

© Beverly Bell, 2010

Photo by flickr user treesftf

PRESS & JOURNAL– A lonely and lovelorn snowy owl is still languishing in the Western Isles without a female companion. It is now seven years since the large white owl, the same species as Harry Potter’s faithful companion Hedwig, first appeared in the Outer Hebrides.

Each year he takes up his pattern of nomadic wandering in quest of a mate. In the past, the big bird’s search has taken him all around the islands, including visits to North Uist, Lewis, Harris and even remote St Kilda, but sadly all to no avail.

It is thought the roaming Romeo is at least eight years old. He was identified as male when his white feathers lost some of the black flecking more commonly recorded in younger snowy owls. From his plumage and visits, local RSPB Scotland staff can ascertain he is the same bird and has been without a mate for years now.

But they do say that good things come to those who wait. Hopes were raised in 2008 when the bird was joined by another wandering snowy owl, but dreams of a happy ending were dashed when it emerged it too was male.

No snowy owl has bred in Britain since 1975 when, famously, a pair bred in Shetland.

Continue reading about Lovelorn Snowy Owl Continues 7 Year Quest to Find Mate.

© COPYRIGHT PRESS & JOURNAL, 2011

Photo by Flickr User Envirotex