April 27-28, 1991 At U.C.L.A.
About 30 people from all over the state of California attended this intensive, 2 day conference. Some of the presenters were Penny Newman of Citizen's Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste; Deb Bruns of CALPIRG (California Public Interest Research Group); Patty Clary of CATS (Citizens Against Toxics); Craig Nerrukees of the National Toxics Campaign; Sheila Darr of the Bio-Integral Resource Center; Joan Clayburgh of Pesticide Watch; and Dave Bunn, a researcher on pesticides.
This close-knit group pooled together their resources in an exchange of ideas for solving the problems in bringing about new attitudes and actions in California regarding use of pesticides and alternatives to them.
For example, Deb Bruns presented methods for community groups to use in promoting legislation against pesticide use. She said that, since pesticides fall under the California Department of Food and Agriculture, they are not strictly regulated; furthermore, pesticide reform in the state legislature is difficult to get passed. Possible steps to take to promote legislation include the initiative process, lobbying, and supporting legislation currently proposed.
Some proposals now being considered by the California State Legislature are SB 926 (Petris) on School Pesticide Use Reduction, SB 520 (Petris) on Phase-out of Acutely Toxic Pesticides, AB 1854 (Connelly) on Pesticide Residues in Food, and Governor Wilson's proposal for restructuring of environmental regulatory agencies by forming a California Environmental Protection Agency.
For more information on what you can do to help with any of these bills, call:
Senator Petris' office (916) 445-6577
Assm. Connelly's office (916) 445-2484
Dave Bunn spoke on the importance of documenting important data to back up claims regarding pesticide use and effects. He said, "In any issue, we should ask: are there any government agencies that regulate the agency we are dealing with? We can find much information from the regulating agency. It is public information (by Community Right-to-know Federal legislation), and with polite approaches a person or team of volunteers can find a wealth of data to support their cause."
Craig Merrilees gave ideas on how to work with the media to effectively get a story out. His principles were:
1.Choose a polarizing issue.
2.Get special interests involved in your cause.
3.Confront legitimate forces.
4.Use celebrities (local, national, etc.), but carefully, because some may steal the spotlight and take attention away from your cause.
5.Have "real news" for the media. This includes documentation and facts with legitimate, expert confirmation.
6.Organize your story well - no typos! Be specific regarding demands and reasons. Target the person who is against you, not the office he represents.
Penny Newman spoke about imaginative, fun ways of raising money for a cause. She also outlined how the structure of an organization determines the communication and level of participation by its workers. A good structure, such as a democratic "wheel" structure with a general membership, various committees, and an executive committee at the "hub," is very efficient.
The best presentation was by Sheila Darr, who spoke on methods of Integrated Pest Management and gave many ideas on alternatives to using pesticides in homes, businesses, forests and agriculture. She emphasized the importance of getting to know the pest you are dealing with - its habits, life cycle and habitat - and then deciding how to reduce the enticements for the pests in the least toxic ways. For example, instead of fumigating a home with methyl bromide, it can be "fumigated" with heat to 120¡ F in the interior wood for half and hour and be just as effective at killing the termite colonies.
This conference provided much helpful information and literature, but the nicest thing was meeting hard working people from all over the state who are fighting an important issue today - the issue of overuse of toxics when many effective, nontoxic, less costly methods (especially in terms of human and environmental health) are being developed and made available. It is a matter of having local groups unite in a concerted cause to bring about changes in our habits and laws. This is how democracy works.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2004
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited