By Vanessa Richins

Are you or your child majoring in horticulture or agribusiness at a college or university in North Carolina?

Apply now for the $1000 scholarship from the North Carolina Tomato Growers Association.

There will be 1 scholarship awarded for a student in either an undergraduate or graduate program.

The scholarship will be based on the best applicant that demonstrates : leadership, scholarly achievement, extracurricular activities, initiative, and financial need.

The conditions of the scholarship, per their website, are:

“The scholarship is contingent on Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »