Strawberry Growers, Farmworkers, and Responses to a Changing Pesticide Industry

这个项目调查种植者和农场工人对加州草莓产业中使用的某些杀虫剂的负面影响的新知识做出的反应。这一担忧是在围绕甲基碘的争执之后产生的。甲基碘是一种与出生缺陷有关的剧毒土壤熏蒸剂，旨在取代甲基溴，根据《蒙特利尔议定书》，甲基溴是一种消耗臭氧的化学物质，将在2015年前逐步淘汰。激烈的反对导致甲基碘在2012年从美国市场上撤出。从那时起，加州草莓产业一直在寻找一种可行的甲基溴替代品，同时寻求获得一系列其他土壤熏蒸剂，以维持高产量。尽管该行业辩称，这些化学物质对于为大众市场提供健康的新鲜水果是必要的，但它们可能导致出生缺陷的可能性已经给农场工人和附近社区带来了新的担忧。然而，农场工人在政治上是脆弱的，这阻碍了他们反对农用化学品使用或倡导更具保护性的应用协议或毒性较低的替代品的能力。考虑到化学品和工人的流动性，再加上暴露的潜在负面影响表现出的世代时间滞后，证据问题加剧了他们的脆弱性。因此，这关系到一些根本性的问题，即哪些人应该得到健康和福祉，暴露的不确定性在这些计算中如何发挥作用，以及将如何实施保护，无论是以技术强制监管限制的形式还是以更具限制性的应用协议的形式。为了分析这些问题，该项目将力求确定：1)在最近的淘汰期内，甲基溴相对于其他化学和非化学替代品的使用情况；2)农场工人健康问题的能见度提高，加上持续的监管不确定性和与暴露有关的意外情况，并因此而变得更加复杂，如何影响种植者关于使用甲基溴的化学和非化学替代品的决定；以及3)农场工人的政治和生物状况如何影响他们对甲基溴的化学和非化学替代品及其各自的应用规程的看法和自我宣传。为了回答这些问题，研究人员将收集和分析农药使用许可证的数据，以确定熏蒸剂的使用在过去十年中发生了怎样的变化。此外，他们将与两个不同草莓产区的种植者和农场工人进行访谈：种植者考虑影响种植者决定使用各种甲基溴替代品的因素，以及农场工人，了解围绕甲基碘的斗争是否鼓励他们倡导毒性较低的方法和/或加强他们使用自我保护的做法。逐步淘汰甲基溴是一个深刻而独特的机会，可以了解种植者在面临监管变化时会做什么。这个项目将阐明公众抗议、经济需求、伦理关注以及类似毒性和毒性较低的替代品的可用性在围绕有毒化学品的决策中的相对作用。它潜在地展示了监管斗争在塑造实地做法方面的力量，即使在实际监管并非实际最优的情况下，尤其是对于一个缺乏塑造监管和抗辩违规行为的权利和能力的群体来说。此外，该项目将有一个重要的外联和教育部分，将向那些在影响监管方面发挥作用并与最大限度地减少接触有关的人传播研究。将通过出版的报告、行业会议和公开会议进行宣传。分享研究结果可能会导致更安全的做法，更好地培训化学品的使用，并可能鼓励进一步开发和传播毒性较低的替代品。这项研究包括在研究和推广中与代表不足的群体的人接触，从而实现纳入的目标。

This project investigates how growers and farmworkers are responding to new knowledge about the negative effects of certain pesticides used in California's strawberry industry. This concern arises in the wake of a contentious battle over methyl iodide, a highly toxic soil fumigant associated with birth defects that was designed to replace methyl bromide, an ozone depleting chemical that will be phased out by 2015 under the Montreal Protocol. Vociferous opposition led to the withdrawal of methyl iodide from the US market in 2012. Since then, the California strawberry industry has been seeking a viable replacement for methyl bromide, at the same time that it seeks to maintain access to a range of other soil fumigants to sustain high production. While the industry argues that these chemicals are necessary to provide healthy fresh fruit for mass markets, their potential to cause birth defects have produced new concerns for farmworkers and nearby communities. However, farmworkers are politically vulnerable and this thwarts their ability to contest agro-chemical use or to advocate for more protective application protocols or less toxic alternatives. Compounding their vulnerability is the issue of proof, given the mobility of chemicals and workers, combined with generational time lags in the manifestation of potential negative effects from exposure. At stake, then, are fundamental questions of what populations are deserving of health and well being, how uncertainty of exposure plays out in these calculations, and therefore how protection, whether in the form of technology-forcing regulatory restrictions or more restrictive application protocols, will be implemented. To analyze these issues, the project will seek to determine 1) the use of methyl bromide relative to other chemical and non-chemical alternatives during the most recent phase-out period; 2) how enhanced visibility of farmworker health issues, combined with, and complicated by, continued regulatory uncertainty and the contingencies associated with exposure, have influenced grower decisions on the use of chemical and non-chemical substitutes to methyl bromide; and 3) how farmworkers' political and biological status have shaped their perspectives and self-advocacy on chemical and non chemical alternatives to methyl bromide and their respective application protocols. To answer these questions, researchers will gather and analyze data from pesticide use permits to determine how fumigant use has shifted over the past decade. In addition, they will conduct interviews with both growers and farmworkers in two different strawberry-producing regions: with growers to consider factors that shape growers' decisions to employ the various alternatives to methyl bromide and with farmworkers to learn whether the battle over methyl iodide has emboldened them to advocate for less toxic methods and/or enhanced their employment of self-protective practices.The phase-out of methyl bromide represents a profound and unique opportunity to learn what growers do when faced with a regulatory change. This project will elucidate the relative roles of public outcry, economic need, ethical concern, and the availability of similarly toxic and less toxic substitutes in decision-making around toxic chemicals. It potentially demonstrates the power of regulatory battles to shape on-the-ground practices, even when actual regulation is less than practically optimal, especially for a group that lacks rights and capacities to shape regulation and contest violations. In addition, the project will have a substantial outreach and education component that will disseminate research to those who have a role in affecting regulation and a stake in minimizing exposure. Outreach will take place through published reports, industry conferences, and public meetings. Sharing the results of the research will potentially lead to safer practices, better training in the use of chemicals, and will possibly encourage the further development and dissemination of less toxic alternatives. The research includes engagement with people from underrepresented groups in both the research and outreach and will thereby fulfill goals of inclusion.