The
Associated Press State & Local Wire
May 31, 2007
Pesticide spraying regulations could be tightened in Santa Cruz
County as a result of chemicals found on a field of organic herbs
in Wilder Ranch State Park.
The county agricultural commissioner is investigating the incident,
which led Jacobs Farms to file a lawsuit earlier this month against
Western Farm Service of Fresno, which provides and applies pesticides
for farmers.
The suit claimed pesticide sprayed by Western Farm on nearby brussels
sprout fields drifted onto 120 acres of organic dill that Larry
Jacobs grows on land leased from Wilder Ranch.
But Agricultural Commissioner Ken Corbishley said chemicals landing
on the organic dill did not follow the usual pattern he sees when
pesticide is blown by the wind. Additionally, he said, there's
a wide buffer zone between the locations.
Corbishley is now working with the state Department of Pesticide
Regulation to possibly create weather models of coastal fog, which
he said likely carried the pesticides from the conventional crops
into the organic field.
Corbishley and the state will examine the
best time of day to spray so fog won't carry pesticides. |
