Fumigant Used On Commercial California Strawberry Field – Finally

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The long-awaited soil fumigant that many have hailed as a “drop-in” replacement for methyl bromide has finally been applied to a commercial strawberry field in California. A commercial application of Midas (methyl iodide, Arysta LifeScience) was successfully completed on a field where strawberries will be grown outside of Santa Maria, in the state’s central coast region, according to a company press release.

Arysta officials said the application was completed in spite of a small group of special interest activists’ attempts to subvert the review process of the U.S. EPA and California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) and ignore the scientific opinion of hundreds of career scientists who weighed in to support Midas. (See “Group Sues To Block Fumigant,” below.) In fact, in a last-ditch effort one group appealed the recent application permit to the Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner, who rejected the appeal.

Midas is a broad-spectrum soil fumigant developed by Arysta LifeScience to control a variety of soil-borne diseases, nematodes, and weed seeds that threaten high-value crops, including strawberries. It is one of the most comprehensively researched agricultural compounds in existence and underwent extensive reviews by U.S. EPA and CDPR. This despite the fact that Midas is not applied directly to crops, nor is it applied when farmworkers are present in fields.

In California, it’s been applied on fields where peppers and nursery stock crops will be grown. This application makes the fifth commercial application in the state this year. The significance of this most recent application is that strawberry growers as a group have clamored the loudest for an effective replacement for methyl bromide. While Midas has successfully been applied to strawberry ground in the southeastern U.S. since its EPA registration in 2007, California growers had no access. But now the Golden State’s 500-plus commercial growers, who produce nearly 90% of the nation’s strawberry crop on about 36,000 acres, will now finally be able to use Midas.

Midas is registered in 48 states across the U.S., including Florida and California and has been applied safely to more than 17,000 acres where ornamentals, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, tree fruit, nuts, vines, and turf crops were later grown. Internationally, MIDAS is registered in Japan, Mexico, Guatemala, Turkey, New Zealand, Uruguay, and Morocco with additional international registrations pending in Australia, Egypt, Israel, and South Africa.

Source: Arysta LifeScience

For more information, click on the following headlines:

“Fumigant Finally Applied In California”

“Arysta Earns Ozone Protection Award From EPA"