Last week, the EPA announced new regulations on use of the fungicide, chlorpyrifos, a known toxin commonly used on potato crops. The new ruling will lower the allowable applications and the restrictions will be on product labels later this year, the agency reports in a statement released on the EPA website.

Methyl iodine, the neurotoxin chemical used to fumigate strawberry and tomato fields before planting, is at the heart of a growing debate in California just a year after former Governor Schwarzenegger approved its use.

Organic California strawberries are grown with prohibited chemicals violating organic regulations, claims the San Francisco based Pesticide Action Network and several area growers in a recent letter to the USDA.