COUNTYWIDE : Farmers Announce Safe-Food Initiative

California farmers on Friday unveiled their strategy to persuade voters to adopt a farmer-sponsored “food safety” ballot proposal over an anti-pesticide initiative supported by environmentalists and Democratic leaders.

“Our goal is to have a group of 25,000 volunteers go door-to-door and tell the voters that this initiative has broad-base appeal and is supported by the farmers and their friends,” said Bob Vice, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation. He spoke at a news conference at Oxnard Airport.

The farmer group also hopes to raise $4 million for its campaign, which is directed by The Dolphin Group, a Westwood political consulting firm. The Dolphin Group also organized Gov. George Deukmejian’s first gubernatorial campaign and the recall of Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Bird, and coordinated developer contributions to pro-growth candidates in last year’s Ventura City Council election.

The farmer-backed initiative would increase testing of food for pesticide residues, review the safety of many pesticides and conduct research into alternative pest-control measures. The farmer’s initiative is a moderate approach, Vice said, compared to the “radical approach” taken by environmentalists.

The competing ballot initiative is sponsored by environmentalists and Democratic leaders Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp and Assemblyman Tom Hayden of Santa Monica. They contend that food is tainted with residues of cancer-causing pesticides. Their initiative would phase out such pesticides over six years.

Vice said the Hayden-Van de Kamp initiative is not based on science and would leave farmers stranded without chemicals to combat weeds and pests. “The research is just not there to replace all of these pesticides,” he said.

Rob Ray, president of Ventura County’s Agriculture Assn., said he was proud that Ventura County farmers collected 20,000 of the 800,000 signatures to help put the farmers’ initiative on the November ballot.

“It shows the unity of agriculture,” he said. “We want to give consumers confidence in their food supply.”

Vice said the initiative was conceived by the state’s farmers and was not the brainchild of the agricultural chemical industry.