Deal with Ag-Mart falls short

Media outlets are continuing to follow the Ag-Mart settlement story.  This is from the Wilmington Star-News online:

Advocacy groups say deal with Ag-Mart falls short in protecting farm workers

by Gareth McGrath

After more than five years a deal might have finally been reached between the N.C. Pesticide Board and Ag-Mart over alleged pesticide violations at the produce giant’s  farms in Brunswick and Pender counties.

But more than a dozen groups that advocate for farm workers think the state could have done more – a lot more – to make sure another situation like this doesn’t happen again.

After getting tipped off by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, state investigators in 2005 charged the company with 369 violations – which carried a possible maximum and record-setting $184,500 fine – at its Leland and Currie tomato farms.

Investigators with the state Department of Agriculture said workers entered sprayed fields in clear violation of pesticide application guidelines on numerous occasions. The state also claimed Ag-Mart violated rules governing safety training for workers and the proper disposal of pesticide containers, and had insufficient worker safety and health measures at the farm sites.

What followed was a protracted legal battle that eventually ended up with the Ag-Mart state regional manager agreeing to pay $25,000 to settle violations dating from 2004, 2005 and 2006.  He also was allowed to keep his pesticide applicator’s license.

Per state policy, violations are cited against the license holder, not his employer.

Ag-Mart also agreed to fund a training program for farm workers during this and next year’s growing seasons.

Here’s the letter from the Farmworker Advocacy Network, also signed by other groups, highlighting the alleged deficiencies in the settlement agreement.



Update on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 8:44AM by Chris Liu-Beers

FAN also received significant coverage from NC Policy Watch:

Farmworker advocates decry AgMart settlement

For those who may have missed it, a collection of farmworker advocates delivered an open letter to the chairman of the state Pesticide Board last Friday that spells out many of the deficiencies in the recent settlement of the AgMart farmworker poisoning case. It is a damning letter. Here is a key segment:

For more than five years, the Pesticide Section staff worked diligently with the resources they had available to collect good evidence and make a case for Ag-Mart’s accountability in this matter. We understand that settling this case brought an end to significant public expense and extra workloads for the Pesticide Section staff.

However, in the final settlement, the Pesticide Board chose to back away from its own findings. In agreeing to make a public statement absolving Ag-Mart and Mr. Oxley from any negligence or responsibility in the matter, the board sent a much louder statement that the state ultimately will not hold violators responsible when a preventable pesticide incident has the potential to cause irreparable harm to farmworkers and their families. How much worse would a case have to be in order to make the charges stick?

The Pesticide Board has now completed five years of hearings on this heartbreaking case. In all of those years, the Board has only once touched on the underlying problems that gave rise to this case, when ordered to do so by the NC General Assembly, and board members chose to do so in the narrowest possible way. As observers of your work throughout these five years, we have been astounded that members did not seriously discuss what the board could do to prevent such pesticide violations from ever happening in our state again. The NC Pesticide Board has the authority and the power to make significant changes in the working conditions faced by farmworkers, who face some of the most difficult and dangerous conditions of any workers in North Carolina, yet have chosen instead to absolve the worst violator in our state’s history.”

You can read the entire open letter by clicking here. You can also read a summary of some the group’s specific and common sense recommendations for preventing agricultural pesticide exposure by clicking here.