As most organic farmers are well aware, pesticides sprayed on fields don't stay put. Pesticides fly around, vaporize, drift to organic farmland and land everywhere else the environment sees fit to carry them. It's an obnoxious issue that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has slacked on for years.
The EPA has spent the previous decade thinking about maybe adding warnings to pesticide labels about this drift issue, but they've done nothing concrete about it. Back in November of 2009, the EPA released an official proposed plan for new pesticide labeling. If set in motion, this plan was meant to help reduce off-target spray and dust drift. However, the EPA ended up extending the comment period on the proposal to March 2010. Fast forward to today, and still there's nothing on the books (or labels as the case may be) to protect organic farms (along with other folks) from the harm that can occur from pesticide spray drift.
Now, however the tides may be changing. In excellent ground-breaking news regarding drift, Larry Jacobs, an organic grower has won the right to sue Western Farm Service for pesticide drift. The whole mess started four years ago when Whole Foods told Jacobs that they couldn't buy his organic dill since they had found pesticide residue on it. Jacobs, an organic grower eventually realized that pesticides applied in liquid form to a nearby farm had evaporated, and via vapors ended up on Jacobs' crops.
At the end of December, California's 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose decided to allow Jacobs the right to sue the original pesticide applicator, Western Farm Service. Even better, the court decided that Jacobs also deserved the $1 million, that two years ago, was given to him after a jury ruled in his favor.
The San Jose Mercury News states:
"The decision is significant, agriculture and law experts say, because it strengthens the case for organic farmers or anyone else harmed by pesticides to seek legal recourse -- even if the pesticide, as it was here, is legally applied."
This is a very significant decision and a huge perk for the organic community and organic advocates. All organic growers, along with other people, deserve to grow and live pesticide-free if they choose to.
Comments