Tomato Casual » North Carolina Pesticide Board Determining Tomato Grower’s Fate

North Carolina By Michelle Fabio

In 2005, Ag-Mart Inc., a division of Pronacci Brothers that grows tomatoes in southeastern North Carolina, was fined $184,500 by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture—the largest fine in the state’s history—for 369 violations of pesticide law and exposing employees to harmful pesticides.

Then in October of last year, an administrative law judge recommended that the company be fined only $6,000, finding that the Department of Agriculture failed to prove most of the allegations, which originally included an assertion that exposure to harmful pesticides may have caused birth defects in three children of Ag-Mart employees.

Among the 17 allegations for which Ag-Mart could be held responsible, according to Judge Joe Webster, were burning pesticide containers, lack of safety equipment, and permitting workers to harvest crops too soon after the spraying of chemicals.

Now the case will go in front of the North Carolina Pesticide Board on February 12 who must decide whether to accept or reject the judge’s recommendation and move forward with the original allegations.

The Board is comprised of seven members of various agricultural and health sectors and is appointed by the governor; it “adopts rules and regulations and makes policies for the programs outlined in the North Carolina Pesticide Law of 1971” according to the Department of Agriculture website.

Unfortunately, this isn’t Ag-Mart’s first brush with pesticide law violations. Last March an administrative law judge in Florida reduced a fine levied by that state’s Department of Agriculture by $100,000 finding only seven of the original 78 violations to have merit.