{"id":38030,"date":"2011-05-03T06:45:40","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T13:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/news\/students-demand-cancer-free-strawberries\/"},"modified":"2023-01-12T10:19:13","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T18:19:13","slug":"students-demand-cancer-free-strawberries","status":"publish","type":"pan_blog","link":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/news\/students-demand-cancer-free-strawberries\/","title":{"rendered":"Students demand cancer-free strawberries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\" panna_blog_had_childimg\">\n\tStrawberries were on the agenda at the recent Social Justice Summit hosted by Cal State Fullerton. In a lively workshop entitled <em>Strawberry Fields Forever: Pesticides and Environmental Injustice in California<\/em>, students developed strategies to roll back the controversial fumigant pesticide methyl iodide.<\/p>\n<p><!--break--><\/p>\n<p>\n\tPAN Partners Program Coordinator Devika Ghai and Campaign Assistant Tia Lebherz traveled south to lead the workshop, and report that the students were &quot;outraged that science had been so clearly subverted&quot; to allow approval of the toxic chemical for widespread use in the state.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tWorkshop participants explored the new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.safestrawberry.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Safe Strawberry campaign<\/a> website, and discussed ideas for getting methyl iodide off the market and out of California communities. Here&#039;s a small sampling of the creative strategies they came up with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>Spreading the word:<\/strong> After the conference, attendee Arianne Custer wrote <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailytitan.com\/2011\/04\/27\/killer-strawberries-coming-to-a-supermarket-near-you\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a powerful article<\/a> that was published on the front page of CSU Fullerton&#039;s newspaper, <em>The Daily Titan<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>Pressuring decision makers:<\/strong> Another attendee took a paper copy of PAN&#039;s <a href=\"http:\/\/action.panna.org\/p\/dia\/action\/public\/?action_KEY=6270\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">petition to EPA<\/a> home and used it as a sign-in for her birthday party, gathering signatures from friends and family.<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>Organizing local campaigns: <\/strong>Many participants vowed to pressure retailers to sign the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.safestrawberry.org\/content\/get-involved\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Safe Strawberry pledge<\/a>, committing to purchasing only cancer-free strawberries grown without the use of methyl iodide.<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t<strong>Advancing alternatives: <\/strong>Workshop attendees agreed there is an urgent need to support alternatives to chemical-heavy strawberry production, without placing the burden on farmers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\n\tMany innovative famers are already successfully growing strawberries without fumigants.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.grist.org\/organic-food\/2011-04-26-strawberry-grower-shows-how-to-make-a-profit-without-poisons\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Jim Cochran<\/a>, California&#039;s first organic strawberry farmer and owner of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.swantonberryfarm.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Swanton Berry Farms <\/a>has been in the public spotlight recently, being honored as a recipient of the 2011 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nrdc.org\/health\/growinggreen.asp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Natural Resource Defense Council&#039;s &quot;Growing Green Award&quot;<\/a> for his longtime work in sustainable food production.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t&quot;The attendees at this workshop and the entire Social Justice Summit were an inspiration,&quot; reports Lebherz. &quot;This kind of spirit motivates all of us to keep fighting chemical giants like Arysta, the largest privately-held pesticide company in the world and maker of methyl iodide. We all deserve cancer-free strawberries&mdash;the students realized they can do something <em>right now<\/em> to move us toward this goal.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.panna.org\/issues\/related-actions\/keep-science-strawberries-safe-corporate-influence\">Take Action &gt;&gt;<\/a> EPA recently extended its comment period on methyl iodide to May 13th. Please add your name to PAN&#039;s petition today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Strawberries were on the agenda at the recent Social Justice Summit hosted by Cal State Fullerton. In a lively workshop entitled Strawberry Fields Forever: Pesticides and Environmental Injustice in California, students developed strategies to roll back the controversial fumigant pesticide methyl iodide. PAN Partners Program&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":29676,"template":"","blog_tag":[],"pan_blog_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog\/38030"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pan_blog"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog\/38030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"blog_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog_tag?post=38030"},{"taxonomy":"pan_blog_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panna.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pan_blog_type?post=38030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}