The California Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Pesticide Regulation announced a deal with pesticide manufacturers to end sales of the pesticide chlorpyrifos statewide by early next year. But environmental advocates also want the state to curb other agricultural pesticides.
Community organizers in the Salinas Valley have long begged for a ban on chlorpyrifos, as study after study has tied the widely-used pesticide to brain damage in children. So when California’s Department of Pesticide Regulation announced this month that it’s taking legal action to ban chlorpyrifos across the state, those campaigning for pesticide reform in the region felt that their work was finally paying off.