Tell Driscoll’s to Stop Poisoning Us with Pesticides and Plastic
Stop buying Driscoll’s berries. The organic berries are grown in containers on land paved with plastic and the non-organic ones are poisoned with organophosphorus pesticides.
Driscoll’s is the reason why, even after California banned chlorpyrifos, the state’s use of organophosphorus pesticides is increasing in the Central Coast region (even as it’s gone down everywhere else). That’s where Driscoll’s grows its strawberries. In Monterey County, Driscoll’s caused organophosphorus pesticide use to go up 26 percent and exposure is nearly unavoidable.
Because of Driscoll’s, Monterey County has the highest proportion of pregnant women (50 percent) living within 1 km of organophosphate pesticide use. Living within 1–1.25 km of organophosphate pesticide applications during pregnancy is linked to autism spectrum disorder, reduced IQ in children, and altered brain activity in adolescents.
This is so distressing to the citizens of Watsonville, California, where Driscoll’s is headquartered, that two people went on hunger strike, demanding that Driscoll’s transition its farms near schools to organic, but Driscoll’s wouldn’t even publicly acknowledge their protest.
