The State - News from June 8, 1987

United Farm Workers President Cesar Chavez said California’s table grape industry is weakening from a 3-year-old boycott aimed at forcing growers to stop using pesticides that endanger field hands. Addressing a conference of the National Assn. of Social Workers in Washington, Chavez said concern about pesticides is spreading beyond the farm. He cited a National Academy of Sciences report which estimated that pesticides on food could cause 1.4 million tumors in the next decade. He said the California Table Grape Commission’s decision to increase its advertising budget by 83% to $7.3 million this year showed that the boycott has been effective. “They say it’s because they are expecting a bumper crop,” Chavez said, “but it’s got to be the boycott.”