Is methyl iodide a danger to consumers who eat strawberries?
Most likely, no. Methyl iodide is put into the soil, not sprayed on the plant, and it doesn’t get into the plant very much. All the evidence suggests that the residual effect, by the time you get the strawberries to market, is virtually zero. Why are you speaking out against the proposed regulations for methyl iodide? First, the best decision is to not use methyl iodide or methyl bromide. It’s an industry, and the growers can still make their money, but consumers just have to pay more. I hate to be blunt about this, but if you don’t get strawberries, have blueberries. Second, we have this idea that we can just throw chemicals into our environment in tens of millions of ways and not have it come back to haunt us. There needs to be a transformation, where we start thinking in terms of diminishing our dependence on all of these chemicals. How many of them are really essential? How many are perceived as important when in fact they aren’t? Third, if you think it’s important to use chemicals
