Environmental Group Joins UFW in Grape Boycott

By Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney - Country Activist, Mid September 1988; reprinted and abridged in the Industrial Worker, October 1988

The United Farmworkers Union has been joined by Earth First! in the call for a boycott of pesticide-sprayed grapes. At a demonstra­tion at the Safeway in Ukiah on August 26^th during the 6 PM evening rush, an environmental coalition led by Earth First! pro­tested both inside and outside the branch of the huge supermarket chain. The rally follows on the heels of a month long fast by UFW President Ceasar Chavez to call attention to the issue.

Earth First!er Betty Ball[1] made the initial contact with the UFW to see if they would appreciate an Earth First! demonstration in soli­darity with the grape-pickers: “They were delighted with our par­ticipation, and with the overall response they’ve been getting from a wide variety of groups,” said Ball.

At issue is the spraying of pesticides onto table grapes, in­cluding the poisons phosdrin, parathion, methyl bromide, dinoseb, and captan. Farmworkers who are exposed to these toxics are cit­ing alarming rates of birth defects and of cancer in both children and adults.

Said local Earth First! organizer Judi Bari, “The same compa­nies that think nothing of destroying the Earth with their pesti­cides also think nothing of poi­soning the human beings who work in their fields. We support the struggle of the United Farm­workers in their fight to live and work in a healthy environ­ment.” Bari pointed out that Safeway has been tar­geted for their refusal to boycott, complicity in spraying, and their national prominence. She said consumers in Ukiah can still buy organic grapes at places like Raley’s and the Ukiah Co-op.

Noting that this is an expansion of Earth First!’s usual focus on forestry issues, Bari said “The earth is being destroyed in more ways than just deforesta­tion. In the same way that loggers and forests are poisoned by herbicides, the farmworkers and fields are poisoned by pesticides. The connection is clear.”

Bari composed a song to highlight the issue, and it was sung inside the Safeway at the produce section:

Don’t eat those grapes, they ain’t good for you,
Made the farmworkers sick, in the fields, it’s true,
And their killing off the birds, and the wildlife too,
So if you eat them, who knows what they’ll do.

Those grapes are sprayed with the poison Phosdrin,
Parathion, Methyl Bromide, Dinoseb and Captan,
They gotta stop using poison and until then,
Don’t eat those grapes again.

Earth First!er Darryl Cherney sees a trend in the Earth First! sup­port of a labor movement issue. “This action signifies an impor­tant step in linking the environmental and labor communities. We can­not allow the corporations to form a wedge between us. What could be more pro-labor than a healthy workplace environment? You cannot poison the Earth without poisoning its human inha­bitants as well.”[2]

Footnotes:

[1] Betty and Gary Ball are unsung heroes of the Mendocino County environmental movement. They helped establish the Mendocino County Environmental Center (M.E.C.), and (along with Sequoia, Don Morris, et, al., helped get Earth First! up and running in Mendocino County. They were charter members of IWW Local #1. For a detailed back-story on the Balls, see “En­dangered Species are Not Born Again; Gary and Betty Ball”, interviewed by Beth Bosk, New Settler, issue #43, August 1989.

[2] A good summary of the UFW’s campaign can be found in the column, “Conversa­tions from the Corners of the Mouth”, by Kim Moonwater, Mendocino Commentary, July 16, 1987.  On this particular demonstration, see “Local Grape Protest Ends Peace­fully”, by Randy Foster, Ukiah Daily Journal, August 28, 1988 (the protest lasted only 15 minutes as the local Safeway owner called the Ukiah Police.  The demonstrators (including Ball, Bari, and Cherney) attempted invoke the Pruneyard Decision which allows for public speech on private property as long as access and egress is not impeded).