It's Not Over Till It's Over

The state's case against agri-business giant Ag-Mart (grower of "Ugly Ripe" and "Santa Sweets" brand tomatoes, pictured right) regarding 369 violations of NC Pesticide Law and federal Worker Protection Standards by the State of NC recently took a huge step back as the ruling recently found in Ag-Mart's favor. According to information posted by our good friends over at the Pesticide Education Project:

The North Carolina Pesticide Section investigated the company's pesticide use and treatment of workers after three severely deformed babies were born to Ag-Mart employees who'd worked in the company’s North Carolina and Florida tomato fields. It found 369 violations of NC Pesticide Law and federal Worker Protection Standards, and originally sought $184,500 in fines from the company.

Although the ruling is non-binding and the NC Pesticide Board will make the final decision on the case, the Board is in a tight spot since rejecting the decision will most likely lead to a lawsuit carried out by Ag-Mart.

The court said in the ruling that the state cannot fine Ag-Mart for 275 of the individual violations; and instead can only fine them $500 for the whole group. Additional fines could be assessed for the other individual violations, but even those accumulated fines are far less than the over $180,000 the state originally asked for.

And Ag-Mart's compelling defense in this saga? Bad records. They are actually claiming that the records proving that they had workers in the fields immediately after pesticide spraying are negligible, simply because their record-keeping is so bad! Shouldn't they be keeping accurate, up-to-date records since the health of so many workers is at stake?

North Carolina is better than this. We care about the safety of our workers, their families, our food, our health, and our environment. Check out this editorial for more information, and consider writing a letter to the editor--let them know this case is far from over!