The November, 1990 California ballot contained two initiatives which would impact the agricultural chemical industry. The most noted initiative, Proposition 128 popularly called the Big Green or Hayden/Van de Kamp initiative, addressed several environmentally popular themes, including food safety. The most significant effect on agrichem companies would come from the outright banning of certain chemicals, independent of concentration or risk, in food production. Products would be banned based on toxic active ingredients, metabolites of actives, impurities in actives, degradates of actives, inerts, metabolites of inerts, and impurities in inerts. Production Agriculture had sponsored a second, alternate initiative as a more responsible approach to food safety, Proposition 135. This paper will compare both initiatives, will discuss the initiative strategies and will discuss the potential effects on formulation chemists and inert suppliers.