Activists Fighting Against Pesticides Near Schools in the Pajaro Valley

 

 

In this episode of Talk of the Bay, host Omar Dieguez introduces you guests Dr. Ann López  and Adam Bolaños Scow who are alerting us to the dangers of pesticides being sprayed near schools in Watsonville and Pajaro. Over ten schools sit near fields owned by Driscolls, who continue to spray harmful pesticides, harming our community, teachers, students, Indigenous community farmworkers, and Mother Earth.  

 

Guest Adam Bolaños Scow is a Public-Interest Advocate, Violinist, and Music Teacher. 

For over 15 years Adam has helped win environmental campaigns in the Monterey Bay region including the efforts to ban fracking in Santa Cruz, Monterey, and San Benito Counties. He is a co-founder of the Campaign for Organic & Regenerative Agriculture, a grassroots group working to transition agricultural fields away from toxic pesticides to organic in the Watsonville area. He has served on the boards of Regeneracion Pajaro Valley Climate Action, Watsonville Wetlands Watch, and the Sierra Club.

He previously served as a Board Trustee for the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, where he helped win one the largest salary increases for teachers and staff in the history of the district and protected vital arts and music programs.   

As a violinist Adam performs with the Santa Cruz Symphony and also performs Mariachi music with the ensembles RosaAzul and Mariachi Libertad. Adam teaches both orchestra and mariachi through the award-winning El Sistema program in Watsonville.

 

Guest Dr. Ann López is the Executive Director of Center for Farmworker Families. She is an emerita professor and taught courses in biology, environmental science, ecology and botany in the biology department at San José City College for many years. She has a Ph.D. from UCSC in Environmental Studies where she studied the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement on the farms of west central Mexico. Her book entitled The Farmworkers’ Journey summarizes the results, arguments and conclusions of her research and was published by UC Press.. She has been recognized for her work by The U.S. Congress and many organizations. She was chosen as a Woman of the Year for 2013 and 2014 by the National Association of Professional Women. In March 2018, she was chosen for a 16th Annual Cesar E. Chavez Community Award in Watsonville and as Woman of the Year by Mark Stone’s 29th District for 2019.