Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
expedited approval processes for the use of new chemical inputs. These
changes could potentially be benefi cial for growers of vegetables and other
“minor crops.”
7
The farm industry's initial feelings of goodwill toward the FQPA wore
off, however, as the EPA began implementing another aspect of the FQPA's
mandate: reviewing all chemicals registered for agricultural use and rethink-
ing their acceptability under new guidelines. These new guidelines required
the EPA to reexamine the potential for harmful aggregate exposure to
chemicals with similar mechanisms of toxicity; potentially whole classes
of chemicals could be deregistered based on the assessment of the EPA and
an international committee of experts. If certain classes of agricultural
chemicals were deregistered, the range of chemical tools available to
growers of minor crops would shrink, leaving fewer or no controls for some
crops.
I attended a meeting organized by a growers' association to educate
growers about threats to Salinas Valley agriculture from the FQPA. The
following excerpt from my fi eld notes describes the apprehension with
which growers greeted these events:
Another thing that really got them down was the “lumping” of [chemicals] into one
broad classifi cation. . . . [Speaker 1 read] a quote from the international committee
[that is reexamining the chemicals, which said] there is no reason to have subcate-
gories for a type of chemical called an organophosphate [OP]. At this, a woman
sitting next to me sighed, and other people around the room seemed to fi dget a bit.
[Speaker 1] then said that they were further considering putting all the carbamates
in with the OPs, and at this the woman muttered, “Oh shit.” [Speaker 1] gave an
example of [the committee's] logic: “The way they think about it is this: a guy is
walking around his yard spraying [for weeds] and has his kid with him. While
he's not watching, the kid picks up a big piece of sod and puts it in his mouth.
Then the kid goes to daycare where they've recently had to spray for some insects,
and the kid gets something on his fi nger and is exposed again. Then, the dad sets
up an insect fogger in the basement for roaches and the kid manages to get down
there and is exposed again.” [Speaker 2] then adds, “Plus, anything that is suppos-
edly in the food the kid eats.”
If whole classes of chemicals such as organophosphates and carbamates
were deregistered, many of the pest control tools used in Salinas Valley
agriculture would be eliminated. As the drama and tension in this example
indicate, the farm industry perceived this to be among their most pressing
environmental problems.
