Members of the Campaign for Organic & Regenerative Agriculture (CORA) welcomed Miss California’s Teen Jasmine Wu Nov. 1 on a special tour of Pajaro Valley neighborhoods and schools that are surrounded by fields where pesticides are used.
Wu, joined by CORA co-founder Adam Scow and other members of the organization, along with local activist Omar Dieguez, to push area farmers to transition to organic farming.
The two-hour event began near Pajaro Middle School, one of numerous schools that flank agricultural fields, then rolled in a caravan past other area campuses and culminated at the intersection of Green Valley and Holohan roads for closing remarks.
“The boom of strawberries, raspberries and blackberries in the last 10-15 years has led to some of the worst pesticides being used,” Scow said. “Fumigant gasses, organophosphates, insecticide/herbicides like glyphosate are all applied on these fields around the city and right behind some of our schools.”
Scow pointed to a berry field that flanks Pajaro Middle School that he said is run by California Giant.
“These fields are regularly fumigated with toxic gasses that cause cancer,” he said “Gasses like Telone and chloropicrin and other pesticides.” He pointed out how the wind was blowing over the field and across the campus and pointed out that one regulation achieved over the last 10 years was that such pesticides and other chemicals could not be applied while school was in session—so after 6pm or weekends.
“But there are neighborhoods here as well, even when school is not in session,” he said. “So what we’ve said is that rather than trying to regulate one pesticide at a time—and there are dozens of pesticides that are used—why not have these fields just go organic?” He went on to say that, “we’re about 20% organic in the Pajaro Valley,” while pointing to a large map that showed numerous area farms around the Pajaro Valley, most run by Driscolls.
Jasmine Wu of Morgan Hill is a high school senior at Valley Christian High School in San Jose and the reigning Miss California’s Teen.
She advocates for educational equality through tutoring programs and various drives, and supports organizations such as CORA and the Center for Farmworker Families through her school club, Diversity Matters.
“We are on a pesticides reality tour organized by CORA,” Wu said. “As Miss California Teen I’ve been volunteering in the Watsonville area, and when I heard about this event I wanted to show up and show my support; this is my first time as a state title holder and hopefully I can bring more publicity and awareness on this issue because we really need to be building up more pressure publicly — and among the youth as well. I brought some students from the Diversity Club at my school. We are seeing the effects that pesticides have on farms that spray pesticides right near schools that are contributing to learning disabilities and even cancer; so we are trying to rally for that.”
CORA is a grassroots community organization working to transition more farmland to organic in the greater Watsonville and Pajaro Valley region. CORA has released a map of specific fields around Watsonville schools and homes controlled by Driscoll’s and others that use toxic pesticides available at the website link here: farmworkerfamily.org/cora
According to CORA, more than 1 million pounds of toxic pesticides are used in the region, mostly to grow berries for export.
