NC Policy Watch has the story of an outrageous abuse of trust and gross incompetence happening right here in the fields of North Carolina. The company is AG-Mart. Their business practices are criminal.

The more you read about the Florida produce company that grows tomatoes in Eastern North Carolina, the worse it gets. The state Department of Agriculture has fined AG-Mart $184,500 for 369 violations related to its use of pesticides.

State officials say the company sprayed poisonous chemicals while workers were in the fields, allowed people to work in fields just after they were sprayed, and used the pesticides more frequently than the law allowed. There are also charges that the company did not provide training or safety equipment for its employees.

The company faces a lawsuit by the family of a boy born with no arms and legs whose parents worked in the fields before and during the time the child’s mother was pregnant. The News and Observer reports that the lawyer for the parents also represents several other former employees who have children with birth defects.

The company disputes everything, the fine, the charges, and the link between the pesticides and the birth defects. The latest news is that state pesticide officials and the company cannot reach a settlement on the fines and the case may go to the State Pesticide Board.

Go read the rest of the story . . . and weep.

Anglico

PS The top state official overseeing this sorry saga is Steve Troxler, Commissioner of Agriculture. And I'll give you one guess as to which party he represents. That's right. The Incompetent Republican Party.

NC Policy Watch continues . . .

A couple of weeks ago, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler told the News and Observer that he had not read or been briefed on the report on AG-Mart. Probably be a good idea for him to at least browse through it at some point, since it is the biggest fine issued in his Department’s history and it is a case that involves the safety of hundreds of workers.

Pesticide regulation is an environmental issue, not an agricultural one. Making the company pay its fine after it blatantly violates the law and endangers lives is moral issue, not a matter for negotiation. Time to change the law, change who regulates pesticides, and start protecting the people who pick the food we eat everyday.