BONITA DAILY NEWS

January 5, 2006

Wal-Mart plucks tomatoes from stores over pesticide issue

By Laura Layden

Santa Sweets grape tomatoes have been uprooted from the shelves of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores amid concerns that the grower hasn’t followed federal safety rules for pesticides in Florida and North Carolina.

Plant City-based Ag-Mart Produce Inc., the grower of Santa Sweets, has been cited for hundreds of pesticide violations in the two states following separate investigations. The grower denies violating the pesticide laws.

The states’ investigations were launched earlier this year after three of Ag-Mart’s workers had babies born with severe birth defects. The mothers lived in the same labor camp in Immokalee when they became pregnant.

Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores stopped selling the tomatoes soon after North Carolina agricultural officials cited Ag-Mart for 369 pesticide violations in October. That was after the Florida Department of Agriculture charged the company with 88 violations on two farms in Immokalee and Jennings and fined the company $111,200.

“Our primary concern is that of the safety of our members and our customers,” said Olan James, a Wal-Mart spokesman. “I can tell you that the matter is still under investigation from our standpoint.”

He said Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is doing its own investigation and a decision on whether to return the tomatoes to its shelves won’t be made until the investigation is done. Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club pulled the tomatoes off their shelves in early November.

“Anytime there is an issue with any product we will definitely do our due diligence to make sure it’s safe,” James said.

His company isn’t the first retailer to react to Ag-Mart’s alleged pesticide violations.

Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets Inc., one of the country’s largest supermarket chains, stopped selling Santa Sweets tomatoes in October.

But it put them back on the shelves Dec. 12 after doing its own investigation.

“We determined that Ag-Mart has all the controls in place that either met or exceeded the state regulations for handling pesticides,” Publix spokeswoman Shannon Patten said. “So with that in mind we have started offering those products again in our stores.”

Wholesale club operator Costco Wholesale Corp. also has addressed the issue.

Costco only sells Ag-Mart’s grape tomatoes in stores on the West Coast and in California and virtually all of those tomatoes have come from AgMart’s fields in Mexico. But Costco has asked for a promise from Ag-Mart that it will not ship any grape tomatoes from its Florida farms to the wholesaler’s distribution centers in Washington and California, said Keith Neal, a tomato buyer for Costco.

“To my knowledge it has never happened,” he said. “But they couldn’t guarantee it. So we asked them to guarantee it.”

He said Costco did its own independent testing on Ag-Mart tomatoes and they “came back clean.”

The wholesaler also reviewed studies done by Primus Labs, an independent food safety auditor, in 2003 and 2004. Those reports gave Ag-Mart the second highest possible rating, which Neal called “excellent.”

“After doing the testing and looking at the Primus audits, I’m certain about our member safety,” he said. “I believe these are just allegations. They are not proven.”

Still, Costco won’t carry Santa Sweets tomatoes from Florida until it sees Ag-Mart put the pesticide concerns to rest, Neal said.

For Winn-Dixie Stores Inc., the accusations of Ag-Mart’s pesticide violations aren’t a concern.

“Winn-Dixie does not and we have not carried the Santa Sweets grapes by Ag-Mart,” company spokesman Dennis Wortham said.

McDonald’s continues to use Santa Sweets grape tomatoes on its salads, despite the allegations about pesticide violations.

That has brought criticism from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an organization representing a few thousand farmworkers in Southwest Florida.

“We’re calling on McDonald’s to enact a genuine enforceable supplier code of conduct in partnership with us, one to prevent a whole spectrum of abuses, including the horrible effects of pesticide exposure,” said Lucas Benitez, a coalition co-founder. “The dire plight of workers and their children calls for a systemic approach to ending our suffering — and it needs to happen now.”

Leslie Gwinn, an Ag-Mart spokeswoman, declined to comment on how sales have been hurt by the pesticide investigations, saying “the company does not disclose any financial information.”

The state’s tomato growers are facing a tougher than usual year with all the damage caused by Wilma, which hit Oct. 24. The Category 3 storm flooded vegetables fields and destroyed greenhouses and packing houses here and in South Florida.

Ag-Mart is working on settlements with agricultural officials in Florida and North Carolina.

“We continue to cooperate with all parties and expect resolution shortly,” Gwinn said. “However, because discussions regarding the alleged violations are ongoing with various government entities, we cannot comment further at this time.”

The company faces fines of up to $184,500 in North Carolina, on top of the $111,200 in fines Florida Agriculture Commissioners Charles Bronson has sought.

Ag-Mart denies the pesticide violations in both states, saying the analysis that was done was incorrect and that agricultural officials misread the data the company provided.

Most of the allegations center around worker safety. They include allowing workers back into the fields too soon after pesticide treatments.

In Florida, Ag-Mart argues that every pesticide residue analysis by the state’s Department of Agriculture has shown that the company’s produce exceeds all state and federal standards. If produce had been picked too soon after pesticide treatment it would have easily been detected, company officials say.

In October, Collier County Health officials completed their own investigation and found that pesticides were unlikely to blame for the birth defects in the three babies born to migrant families working for Ag-Mart.

The North Carolina Department of Health is still reviewing the pesticides that Ag-Mart used in its fields and their likely effects, said Jim Burnette, an administrator for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services’ Pesticide Section.

In Florida, Ag-Mart asked for an administrative hearing after filing an appeal Oct. 14. But it has since backed away from that request, said Terry McElroy, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture.

He said Ag-Mart officials have asked for a delay in the hearing to “see if they can informally work it out.”

“We have listened to their arguments and we are now making a determination of whether we are going to proceed or whether we are going to settle or just where we are going to go with them,” McElroy said. “Our option is to settle with them for something less than what we are seeking or to proceed in court and try our case and let the chips fall where they may.”

He said in another week or two a decision should be made on how the state will proceed.

In North Carolina, the case could be resolved soon, said Barry Bloch, an attorney representing the state’s pesticide section. A proposed settlement has to be approved by the pesticide board and one could be offered up at the board’s next meeting on Jan. 10.

“All I can tell you is we are negotiating a settlement,” Bloch said. “I can’t tell you anything more specific than that.”