Agriculture, Beverages & Food

Methyl bromide is a silent killer. Colorless and odorless, it is highly toxic to a wide spectrum of organisms, including human beings. It would be fast on its way out today if it weren't for a small handful of corporations, industry associations and elected officials which have worked stealthily and assiduously to keep this deadly product on the market and in the field. Read More

Photos and words from farm workers and communities neighboring methyl bromide injected fields. Read More

A handful of corporations control the methyl bromide industry. Enter the realm of the Bromide Barons. Read More

Today the Albemarle Corporation is one of the top three producers of methyl bromide in the world. Founded in 1887 to produce blotting papers for fountain pens, Albemarle stayed a paper products company for many years. Read More

Dead Sea Bromine produces as much as 30 percent of world output of methyl bromide, which it exports to Europe, Africa, the United States and China. However, very little information is available on this Israeli transnational corporation. Read More

A largely mysterious entity, TriCal is owned and operated by its President, Dean Storkan. Together with some of his top lieutenants, Roger Hruby, Hank Maze and Tom Duafala, Storkan operates a series of thirteen related corporations in which he has significant, if not controlling financial interests. Read More

The most blatent case of the Bromide Barons attempting to underine the democratic process with their financial influence is that of Sun-Diamond Growers of California. A large agricultural concern that uses methyl bromide to grow young fruit trees and to fumigate stored fruit and nuts. Read More

The Methyl Bromide Global Coalition (MBGC) has exerted significant influence on all aspects of the methyl bromide debate, inserting itself as a central player in international scientific panels, diplomatic negotiations and public pronouncements on the issue. Read More

Led by the Methyl Bromide Working Group (MBWG) and its chief lobbyist Peter G. Sparber, the Barons of Bromide are working on a number of fronts to undermine the U.S. Clean Air Act and thus to perpetuate the use of methyl bromide indefinitely. Read More

Various other corporations and industry associations participate in the transnational effort to perpetuate the use of the Class I Toxin and Class I ozone depleter, methyl bromide. Read More