I’m State Policy Director for Californians for
Pesticide Reform, a statewide coalition made up of more than 200
organizations around the state. We work directly with farmworkers
and farmworker communities in seven of the largest agricultural
regions of California who are the most impacted by agricultural
pesticides.
First, I want to thank CARB Board members for their
support for adding natural and working lands for the first time
into any Scoping Plan, and for ensuring that organic farming and
sustainable pest management are recognized as important working
lands climate solutions in the plan. We consider these new
inclusions to be precedent-setting and to be important models for
other regions trying to identify and support climate
solutions.
Having said that, we believe the Scoping Plan
inappropriately includes industrial CCS, which is energy-intensive
and unproven. In the meantime, the working lands sector has proven
capacity for much greater carbon sequestration and equitable
climate solutions than is recognized in the current Scoping Plan.
Pesticides are petrochemicals, derived from oil and gas. They
require inordinate amounts of energy to produce. And depending on
the farming system, working lands can either help the soil
sequester carbon and reduce other greenhouse gas emissions, or
working lands can result in very little carbon sequestration and
increased greenhouse gas emissions. These distinctions need to be
better understood, but there’s already robust evidence, which
we’ve submitted to the Board in previous comment letters
(listed below), documenting that diversified organic farming, which
does not rely on synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, sequesters
far more carbon and results in significantly reduced greenhouse gas
emissions when compared with industrial farming reliant on these
chemicals.
As part of the AB 1757 implementation process being led by
the California Natural Resources Agency, we strongly urge CARB
members to press for even stronger targets for diversified organic
farming as well as for inclusion of reduction targets for fumigant
pesticides, which research already shows contribute significantly
to greenhouse gas emissions and limit the ability of the soil to
sequester carbon. We were pleased that CDFA held a presentation on
this very issue earlier this week, confirming that certain,
primarily fumigant pesticides - 20-30 million pounds of which are
used on California fields each and every year - can contribute up
to 100-fold increases in nitrous oxide emissions and reduced carbon
sequestration. At the same time these
stronger targets need to be adopted, it’s critical that the
state ensure farmers are provided
financial and technical support to reduce their pesticide use,
similar to financial mechanisms that already exist for healthy
soils practices, but which currently exclude support for pesticide
reduction.
Equally importantly, reduction of agricultural pesticides
brings amongst the greatest benefits to EJ communities who
disproportionately suffer the health impacts of pesticide use. If
the state is truly interested in centering equity and in reducing
the impact of toxins on communities of color, while also combatting
climate change, addressing pesticide use is one of the most
effective steps the state can take. Researchers from the California
Environmental Protection Agency itself that found that pesticides
were one of the top two pollutants in the state whose distribution
was most correlated with race and ethnicity, with “60% of zip
codes with the highest proportion of residents of color host[ing
more than] 95% of agricultural pesticide use in the
state.”[1].
Many of the pesticides that are the most harmful to human
health are already banned by other nations and yet California
allows their continued use. Please ensure their reduction in future
working lands targets.
Pesticides Must Be Included in
Scoping Plan and Climate Lands Strategy Letter
to the Governor January 5, 2021
Pesticides Must Be Included in
the 2022 Scoping Plan Sign
on letter to CARB July 9, 2021
Pesticides Must Be Included in
the 2022 Scoping Plan Update Detailed
letter to CARB from CPR and PAN July 9, 2021
Pesticides’ Contribution
to Greenhouse Gas Emissions Must be Measured Comment
letter to CARB July 16, 2021
Pesticides must be included in
the 2022 Scoping Plan update Comment
letter to CARB August 3, 2021
2022 Scoping Plan: Draft
Natural and Working Lands Technical Workshop Sign
on letter to CARB January 5, 2022
Scoping Plan: Initial Air
Quality & Health Impacts Economic Analyses Results Workshop Comment
letter to CARB May 3, 2022
The 2022 Scoping Plan must
include more ambitious targets for organic agriculture and
pesticide reduction targets
Comment letter to CARB June 21, 2022
The 2022 Scoping Plan must
include more ambitious targets for organic agriculture and
pesticide reduction targets Sign
on letter to CARB June 24, 2022
[1] Cushing, L., Faust, J., August, L. M.,
Cendak, R., Wieland, W., & Alexeeff, G. (2015). Racial/ethnic
disparities in cumulative environmental health impacts in
California: evidence from a statewide environmental justice
screening tool (CalEnviroScreen 1.1). American journal of public
health, 105(11), 2341-2348.
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