PALM BEACH POST

July 20, 2005

EDITORIAL

Serious farm checks for serious protection

Florida farmers lead the nation in pesticide use per acre, yet the state employs only 40 inspectors to monitor compliance with regulations and investigate complaints on 40,000 farms and nurseries.

One look at those numbers makes clear that Florida isn't serious about protecting farmworkers and the public from misuse of potentially dangerous chemicals. The 40 inspectors who work for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services have other assignments — a range of duties that includes water pollution monitoring, animal feed inspections for mad cow disease and mosquito control — so pesticide checks become a part-time job. Thousands of sites go years without getting a visit from a state regulatory official. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Florida has failed to meet federal worker protection goals for the past two years.

In April, The Post reported the tragic discovery of severe birth-defect cases involving three young children born to migrant families who worked the same fields in Immokalee, northeast of Naples. State health officials are trying to determine if pesticide poisoning was responsible. A Post reporter and photographer recently accompanied an agriculture department inspector on assignment in Hillsborough County, and the deficiencies in the state's regulatory program were quickly apparent. The tree farm the inspector visited hadn't been checked for five years, said the owner, who admitted that he had advance notice of the inspection.

Surprise inspections would do more to deter misuse of pesticides. But a regulatory program that runs at five-year intervals is meaningless to begin with. The state needs many more inspectors — more than triple the number to compare favorably with states that have effective programs, such as California — and stiffer penalties. The state should tighten restrictions on labor contractors, middlemen who often operate outside the rules. It will also take better cooperation from everyone involved. Doctors, in particular, have to accept more responsibility for reporting suspected cases of pesticide illness to the state.

Above all, government has to reclaim the role of public protector that it has abdicated to the agriculture industry. Begin by acknowledging that the Department of Agriculture can't both promote farming and regulate it. Without leadership in Tallahassee, farmworkers and consumers alike will be vulnerable to misuse of toxic chemicals.