On a sweltering August morning in 1988, Cesar Chavez ended a 36-day water-only fast to protest high rates of cancer and birth defects among California grape workers and their children, which he blamed on the profusion of pesticides in the fields, water and air around farming towns.
Thirty-seven years later, state regulators launched the nation’s first early-warning system for spraying toxic agricultural chemicals.
California has long produced more fruits, vegetables and nuts than any other state. But that bounty comes at a cost. State officials logged more than 2,500 cases of pesticide-related illnesses between 2011 and 2021, when growers applied an average of 202 million pounds of pesticides a year, including chemicals that cause cancer, birth defects and neurological and reproductive damage, among other health problems…