San Francisco-based CREDO mobile is asking its California customers and others to demand that Governor-elect Jerry Brown reverse the Schwarzenegger administration's Dec. 20 emergency approval of soil fumigant methyl iodide, which is expected to be used primarily in the state's $2.1 billion strawberry industry.

So far, with the click of a mouse, more than 25 thousand people have signed an online petition for a moratorium on the pesticide, says CREDO campaign manager Adam Klaus. 

CREDO's online message notes the chemical is a carcinogen that is toxic to the nervous system and poses a hazard to both farm workers and strawberry consumers, and argues that heavy lobbying by Arysta LifeScience, the company that markets methyl iodide under the trade name Midas won the day for methyl iodide's approval. 

But an Arysta spokesman insists the product is already being used safely in the Southeastern United States and around the world.  Likewise, DPR spokeswoman Lea Brooks says methyl iodide underwent extensive review by DPR, and stresses stringent rules the agency drafted for its use.

On inauguration day, Jan. 3,  the company, along with Pesticide Action Network and other activist groups, plans to present its petition in Sacramento.

CREDO, formerly Working Assets, promises subscribers that one percent of their mobile charges go to causes like the environment, civil rights and voter registration.

Recently, Klaus says, the company mobilized to defeat Prop 23, which would have rolled back California's landmark climate change legislation, AB 32, campaigned for the appointment of Elizabeth Warren as Director of the Bureau of Consumer Fraud Protection, and convinced ABC News  to rescind its invitation to Andrew Breitbart, who falsely accused the USDA's Shirley Sherrod of racism, to participate in election night coverage.