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CorpWatch talks with Dolores Huerta of the United Farm Workers about their long history of working to ban dangerous pesticides.

Wilson's support for methyl bromide has certainly helped make him a powerful economic force in the political arena.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

This paper, ''Partnerships for Development or Privatization of the Multilateral System?'' was presented at a seminar organised by the North-South Coalition in Oslo, Norway.

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

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.

Methyl bromide is used principally as a fumigant to control a wide range of pests in soils, commodities and structures. Of the 1992 global sale of methyl bromide: 75 percent was used for soil treatment (nursery crops, vegetables, fruits, tobacco) and over 20 percent was used for the fumigation of durable commodities (cereal grains, dried fruits and nuts, timber), perishable commodities (fresh fruits, vegetables, cut flowers) and structures (food production and storage facilities).

Methyl bromide affects human health both directly and indirectly. It is a complete biocide that kills most living organisms in soil, agricultural products and in buildings where it is applied. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies methyl bromide as a Category I acute toxin -- EPA's most deadly category of substances.

Argentina will take legal action against Monsanto in Spain and in other European nations if the U.S. biotechnology giant continues to block Argentine soy shipments from reaching European Union markets, an Argentine Agriculture Secretariat official said.

Statements from policy and press briefings organized by Ozone Action and held in Washington, DC on February 14, 1996.

LIMA, Peru -- On Monday October 22, 2001, two years to the day after 24 children in the remote Andean village of Tauccamarca were killed and 18 more severely poisoned when they drank a powdered milk substitute that had been contaminated with the pesticide methyl parathion, their families brought suit against the product's principle importer and manufacturer, the agrochemical company Bayer.

Leading consumer and environmental groups are fuming because the Clinton administration has appointed a former Monsanto Corp. lobbyist to represent U.S. consumers on a transatlantic committee set up to avoid a trade war over genetically engineered foods.