County supervisors reject calls to expand public notification of upcoming pesticide use.

On the recommendation of Monterey County’s top agriculture official, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors opted not to expand public disclosure and outreach on the issue of pesticide use.

The county was under pressure from activists long-engaged in pesticide transparency issues as well as from the Civil Grand Jury, which released a report last month that said current outreach efforts are inadequate.

Agricultural Commissioner Henry Gonzales appeared before the board on Sept. 22 and updated the supervisors on the county’s Pesticide Notification Near Schools pilot program. Set up with state funding, the program features a website and text and email system that alerts whoever signs up ahead of scheduled fumigations near several schools in North Monterey County.

After Gonzales’ presentation, residents and representatives from advocacy group Safe Ag Safe Schools tuned into the virtual meeting to ask the board to expand the notification program to all county schools. Some also asked the county to post online the pesticide use notices filed by growers as soon they are available. (These notices of intent, as they are known, are ultimately tabulated for state-mandated pesticide reporting. The notices can be requested by the public, but that takes time.)

Supervisor Jane Parker proposed that the county begin to study some of the suggestions but she was overruled by the four other supervisors, who sided with Gonzales.

Supervisor Luis Alejo said the county ag office has been at the “forefront” of protecting public health: “To those who want more, I get it,” he said. “The advocates are going to want more.”

Gonzales argued that expanding notification is unnecessary and that calls to do so are largely driven by “fear of the unknown.” He said that the pilot notification program has resulted in low levels of engagement from the community, adding that Monterey County already provides information on pesticide use using digital and physical outreach tools. “Can we do more? Everything that we do is at the cost of something else,” he said. “We have legal mandates. If I add more of this, I have to lose more of something else.”

Asked by the Weekly about the possibility of automatically posting notices of intent filed by growers ahead of fumigations, Gonzales says such a move would set Monterey County apart from other counties.

“The issue of posting notices of intent is a statewide issue,” he writes by email. “It would not be appropriate for a county agricultural commissioner to act ahead of the state.”

Val Dolcini, director of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, notes in an email there is no legal requirement to post the notices, but adds that his department supports “[finding] practical ways to communicate this information.”

Acting ahead of conventions is exactly what Héktor Calderón, from the local chapter of California for Pesticide Reform, hopes that Gonzales and Monterey County do. But even full disclosure, he says, wouldn’t be enough. “[People living near fields] should be able to be outside and freely do things. You feel like you are trapped in your house. It’s unfair they are having to protect themselves from fumigation.”

Calderón is driven by his experience as an organic farmer. “That’s my background that led me to this advocacy work,” he says. “You can produce food without using harsh chemicals.”